Roofing in Lilliput

Tile and slate repairs. You will find clay plain tile, concrete interlocking tile and natural slate on the roofs between Sandbanks Road and Lilliput Road, often on neighbouring houses. A clay tile hangs on nibs and is nailed every few courses, so a snapped nib or a rusted nail lets it slide, and a small roof repair becomes a leak.

On a Lilliput roof a concrete tile is heavier and tougher but loses its surface with age. A slate hangs on two nails, and when those corrode the slate slips and leaves a gap. We refit with matched material and new fixings, and use a clip or a hook where a nail alone is not enough.

Ridges, hips and verges. Mortar bedded ridges and verges are the first thing wind finds. Once the bedding cracks, the ridge tiles rock and then lift. We strip them, clean them and refix on a dry fix system, mechanically fixed in line with BS 5534, with dry verge units on the gable ends. On most houses it is a day or two, and it stops the same tiles coming off in the next gale.

Flashings and chimneys. Where a Lilliput roof meets a wall, a dormer cheek or a stack, the joint is sealed with lead. Rain that arrives sideways tests those joints far harder than rain that falls straight, so we check the step and cover flashings, the back gutter behind any chimney and the pointing, and replace worn lead with code rated lead sheet dressed into the joints, not mastic.

Re-roofing. When slipping is general rather than local, patching stops being good value. We strip to the rafters, check the timbers and go back on breathable membrane, new treated battens and a fixing pattern worked out for the site, not copied from the old roof. Depending on the size of the house and the weather, allow one to three weeks once the scaffold is up.

Moss, gutters and the loft. Moss and algae on Lilliput roofs hold water against the tiles, and every heavy shower washes some of it into the gutter. While we are up, clearing the moss by hand and lifting the debris out of the gutters and the top of each downpipe takes little extra time, and we look at the fascia and soffit boards too. From inside the loft we check for a cracked or missing tile letting in daylight, for condensation on the underside of old felt, and for insulation pushed hard into the eaves, where it blocks the ventilation the roof space needs.

Storm damage. After a named storm we make the roof safe first, with a sheet or a temporary repair, and photograph everything, which helps if you claim on your insurance.

When we would talk you out of it. A roof with a few lifted tiles and sound timbers does not need replacing. Moss on the north slope looks worse than it is. We would rather fix what is wrong and tell you what to keep an eye on. If it is one slipped slate, a lifted flashing or a leak you want traced, our page on roof repairs in Lilliput covers that kind of single fault.

No rate per square metre, because the square metres are the easiest thing to measure and the least useful thing to know.

Getting to it. Sandbanks Road carries a bus route and heavy summer traffic out to the ferry, so a scaffold on a frontage there is planned around the pavement and the traffic, while a house on a quiet road off Lilliput Road with a drive is much simpler. Some roofs come off a tower, most want a scaffold, and how long it stands matters as much as its size. This is work at height and the work at height rules are why the platform is a priced line rather than an optional extra.

Junctions and substrate. Chimneys, valleys and abutments are priced one at a time, because that is where the leadwork hours go. Battens, membrane and fixings are the part nobody sees and the part that decides what a re-cover costs.

Comparing quotes? Ask whether the scaffold is in the price, whether battens and membrane are renewed or covered over, what grade of lead is going on the chimney, and who pays for the skip.

We cover Lilliput and the rest of BH14, from Whitecliff and Lower Parkstone along Sandbanks Road to Evening Hill and Salterns, and across to Canford Cliffs and Penn Hill. BCP Council is the planning and building control authority, and our base in Boscombe is about five miles away.

You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can look up in a minute. Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the one who comes out to price the job, not a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are both free. Before you book a visit in Lilliput, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Lilliput 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.