Roofing in Holton Heath

Eighties tiles are sound, eighties nails are not. A lot of the houses in Holton Heath went up between 1983 and 1992, and the usual story on a roof of that age is that the concrete interlocking tiles are fine and the nails holding them are not.

Concrete tile of that era outlasts its own fixings. Steel corrodes at the head, the tile drops a fraction, and the slope starts shedding one tile a winter. That is a strip and re-cover, not a repair, and it is worth knowing early instead of paying for six patch visits first. Where it is one tile, one drip or one flashing, that belongs on our page for roof repairs in Holton Heath. Mortar bedding of the same era cracks, a ridge tile rocks, the gable verge loses its haunching and a cap ends up on the drive, so ridge and hip go to a dry fix system screwed onto a ventilated roll and the gable to dry verge, the mechanical fixing BS 5534 asks for.

The bitumen felt used through the seventies and eighties goes brittle and tears where it laps into the gutter, exactly where it has to be sound, and a wet fascia is often the first sign. Plain clay tile and natural slate turn up on the older properties, some of it on sarking boards, which changes the strip. On a plain tile roof of that age it is the nibs and the nails that go rather than the clay. Cement fillets instead of lead were common on estate housing of this period and crack along the joint every time, so they come out and code rated lead flashings, soakers and abutment pieces go in. Garages, porches and rear extensions are mostly on their original felt, GRP or EPDM and well past it, so the deck is the first thing we open up. Original plastic rainwater goods go chalky and sag between brackets, and a sagging run holds water, collects the debris and algae washed off the slope, and overflows behind the fascia. Houses of this vintage were insulated to the standard of the day and are well short of what Approved Document L now expects of a renovated roof, which is cheapest to put right with the covering off.

Every roof is priced on what Thomas finds, not on a rate. These are the things that move it at Holton Heath.

The shape of the roof. A plain gable bungalow is the simplest roof here. A chalet with dormers, or a two storey house with a rear addition and a valley between the slopes, has more cutting, more lead and more flashing to form, so it costs more than its size suggests.

The tile you have and the tile you want. Much of the housing went up with interlocking concrete tiles. Re-covering in concrete again is the straightforward option. Moving to clay plain tiles or slate means more battens per slope, a different weight on the rafters and different fixings under the code of practice for slating and tiling.

What is under the tiles. Roofs of this age were often laid on bitumen felt that has gone brittle at the eaves. That is expected and it is in the quote. Softened battens, a sagging purlin or mortar ridges that have let go are what change the job once the covering is off.

Access and time on site. A drive and a side gate keep the scaffold and skip off the road. The work at height rules are why the platform is its own line, priced by how long it stands.

When you compare quotes, ask whether the scaffold, the skip and taking the old tiles away are all included, whether the battens and underlay are being renewed or reused, and whether the ridge goes back in mortar or as a dry fixed system.

The ground around Holton Heath is cohesive and rated as shrinking and swelling with the weather, which turns an ordinary roofing question into a structural one. A roof throws a surprising volume of water at the ground in a downpour, and on this sort of soil it matters a great deal where that water lands.

So we look at the bottom of the downpipe as carefully as the top of the roof. Does it discharge into a gully that goes somewhere, or into a soakaway, or onto a border a foot from the wall? Approved Document H sets out where rainwater is allowed to go, and a soakaway on ground like this has to sit well clear of the building and will often fail its percolation test, so a positive outfall is usually the honest answer.

It is also why an overflowing gutter is worth more attention here than the same gutter on sand: the nuisance is the same, and what it is doing to the ground beside the footing is not.

Most repairs in Holton Heath 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.