Roofing in Iwerne Minster

A plastic verge on a cottage looks like what it is. A lot of the housing here predates 1919, so the ridge and verge question gets answered twice. On the post-war houses off the main street the concrete interlocking tile roofs get a dry ridge and dry verge screwed onto a ventilated roll, the mechanical fixing BS 5534 expects.

On a plain tile roof in the conservation area we bed and point in mortar instead, because a plastic dry verge on a cottage of that age looks exactly like what it is. Dry fix or mortar: we tell you which yours wants. On a nail sick hand made clay plain tile roof the tiles are often better than anything you can buy new: the pegs or nails have gone, not the clay. We lift, sort and put the sound ones back on the elevation that faces the road, and buy in reclaimed tile to make up the shortfall.

Under an old Dorset tile roof there is usually no sarking board and often no underlay at all, just riven battens over open rafters. A relay puts breathable membrane in for the first time, and that has a consequence worth knowing: a roof that used to breathe through every gap now needs eaves ventilation designing into it, or you swap a leak for condensation. Soft rafter feet and batten ends come out at the same time. Old roofs in Iwerne Minster carry swept and laced valleys in plain tile as well as open lead lined ones, and the two are repaired completely differently. Chimney flashings, soakers and the abutment where a rear addition meets the wall go back in code rated lead, stepped into a raked joint rather than smeared over the brickwork with mastic, and tall chimneys want the flaunching looking at while the access is there.

Thatch, which we do not do. There is thatch in this village and we are not thatchers, so we say so on the phone, well before any deposit. Where a cottage is part tiled and part thatched we will look at the tiled half, but the junction is a job to plan with your thatcher, and nobody does hot work within reach of a thatched roof, including a neighbour's. A lot of cast iron rainwater goods survive here and a cracked gutter or downpipe section can be replaced, so it is usually worth repairing and keeping, and the fascia and soffit behind a run that has been overflowing want checking while the access is up. Clearing the leaf debris out each autumn, and the algae off a shaded slope, saves the repair it would otherwise turn into. With the covering off, insulation and eaves ventilation cost far less to deal with, and Approved Document L sets the standard a renovated roof is expected to reach. On a solid walled cottage the ventilation matters more than the thickness of the insulation.

An Iwerne Minster roof has no rate per square metre, because roofs of the same size in this village can be very different jobs. What moves the price is the covering, the state of the timbers under it and how the scaffold gets up.

An older house. A large share of Iwerne Minster was built before the First World War. Those roofs often have no underlay at all, or felt that has rotted along the eaves, and rafters that have taken the weight of clay or slate for well over a century. Handmade clay tiles can usually be stripped, sorted and re-hung, with the shortfall made up in reclaimed tiles that match. Sorting and dressing them takes time, and on a house people look at from the lane it is time well spent.

A post-war roof. The bungalows and houses built round the edges of the village after the war mostly carry concrete interlocking tiles. They strip quickly, new battens and breathable membrane go on without fuss, and the scaffold becomes a bigger share of the cost.

Chimneys and junctions. Lead is where the hours go, so each chimney, valley and abutment has a line to itself, and the tiles are fixed to BS 5534. Scaffold is priced openly because of the work at height rules, and scaffold over the lane is slower to erect than scaffold in a back garden.

When you compare quotes, ask a few plain things. Does it include new battens and membrane, or is the old felt staying? Is fresh lead going in at every chimney and valley? Does the figure cover the scaffold and the skip?

Most repairs in Iwerne Minster 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.