Roofing in Highcliffe

Ridge, hip and verge go first on roofs in Highcliffe. Mortar bedding cracks, lets go and washes out, and on a gable the verge takes the wind first.

We convert to a dry ridge and dry verge system, screwed and clipped onto a ventilated roll rather than re-bedded in mortar, which is the mechanical fixing BS 5534 expects and vents the roof space along the ridge while it is up there. It is measured by the metre of edge. Nearly two thirds of the housing went up between 1945 and 1982, the largest wave in the late fifties and early sixties, so many of those edges are reaching the same age together. The water is a couple of hundred metres away and salt corrodes metal from the edge inwards, so a covering can look perfectly sound while the nails and clips holding it down have gone, which is why tiles start slipping in ones and twos with no obvious damage anywhere. On the seaward elevations we fix with stainless rather than whatever came off.

Every tile has a pitch it stops working below. More than a quarter of the dwellings here are bungalows and a fair share of those roofs are shallow. That matters, because every interlocking tile has a minimum pitch below which it is not weathertight however well it is laid. If a roof is under it, the answer is a tile rated for the pitch, or a different system, not the nearest lookalike. Anyone quoting a re-cover without measuring the pitch is guessing. Concrete interlocking tile is what most of the post-war stock carries, with plain clay tile and natural slate on the older houses and the odd hand made tile near the Castle. The bitumen felt on a roof of this age has usually perished and tears first where it laps into the gutter, which is the usual cause of a wet fascia and a damp wall plate. Battens and rafter feet are checked from inside first, and when nails, battens and underlay have all gone together, a strip and re-cover on breathable membrane and treated battens is the honest answer.

Nearly four in ten dwellings here are flats, and the roof over a block belongs to the freeholder and is managed out of the service charge, so the person who rings is often not the person who can authorise the work. Rear extensions, garages, porches and dormer tops are felt, GRP fibreglass or EPDM rubber, and the deck is looked at before the falls, upstands and outlet, because a new covering over a soft deck fails in the same place as the old one. Chimney flashings, soakers, valleys and abutments go in code rated lead. Gutters, downpipes, fascias and soffits, where a fair share of what gets reported as a roof leak actually turns out to be. With the covering off, insulation and eaves ventilation are much cheaper to sort, and Approved Document L sets the standard a renovated roof is expected to reach.

Nobody can price a roof honestly by the square metre. On this stretch of coast two roofs of the same size can be weeks apart, and the difference is nearly always at the edges and in the fixings.

When it went on. The largest single wave, about a fifth of homes, went up in the late fifties and early sixties, so whole streets of roofs are the same age. The tiles in the middle of a slope are often still sound while the ridge mortar, the verge and the nails have given up. That can be edge work rather than a full re-cover, and the survey should tell you which.

The sea. You are close enough to the cliff for salt in the air to rust plain steel nails and clips, beginning at the eaves and verges. On the seaward, south west facing slope the fixings should be stainless or aluminium, and the ridge and verge should be fixed to the slating and tiling code of practice.

The platform. A single storey bungalow is often a tower job. A house or a block wants a scaffold, and on a communal building where it stands has to be agreed first. Access is costed separately because the rules on working at height decide which platform is used.

Under the tiles. A roof laid in that era usually went onto bitumen felt, which perishes along the eaves, and the battens under it may have softened. Renewing the underlay and battens costs real money, and leaving them is a false saving.

Near the sea in Highcliffe, check that any other roofer's price includes the scaffold, new battens and membrane, and stainless fixings.

Roughly two thirds of the homes in Highcliffe went up between the end of the war and the early 1980s, and the biggest single wave of that was the late 1950s and early 1960s. Those roofs were covered within a few years of each other, with the same tile, the same mortar and the same bitumen felt, so they reach the end of their lives at the same time as well.

That is why a whole road can lose ridge tiles in one winter and why the man on the doorstep has an easy pitch to make. What it actually means for you is more cheerful than it sounds. A roof of that age has usually failed at the edges rather than through the field of the slope, so the job is ridge, hip and verge work and a check of the eaves, not a strip. We will tell you which of the two you are looking at, and we will tell you if it is the cheaper one.

Most repairs in Highcliffe need no application at all. What decides whether a change to the outside of your house does is who the council is, whether a conservation area or a listing applies, and whether the place sits in a protected landscape.