Roofing in Matchams

Ridge, hip and verge. The commonest job on an exposed plot. Wind works at the edges rather than the middle, so mortar bedding cracks and a verge loses its bedding long before anything happens mid slope. We convert to a dry fixed system screwed onto a ventilated roll, the mechanical fixing BS 5534 expects, which ventilates the roof space along the ridge at the same time.

Gutters, downpipes, fascias and soffits. This comes up more here than anything else, because of what is coming down. Pine needles wash straight through a gutter and pack into the downpipe and the gully below, so the blockage forms out of sight. They do not rot down over one winter and the resin glues the mat in place, so clearing means emptying the run and then flushing the downpipes through, or it overflows again by February. Shaded slopes under pine hold moss, which sits in the tile laps and keeps water against the covering.

Slipped, cracked and missing tiles, storm damage, and leaks traced to where water genuinely enters rather than patched where the stain shows. Mostly concrete interlocking tile out here, with plain clay tile and natural slate on the older properties. Perished felt tears where it laps into the gutter, the one place it must be sound, and that is the usual cause of a wet fascia. The battens and rafter feet under it are checked from inside first. When nails, battens and membrane have gone together the covering goes back on breathable membrane and treated battens with a matched tile. Garages and rear extensions in felt, GRP fibreglass or EPDM rubber, deck first. With the covering off, insulation and eaves ventilation are far cheaper to deal with, and Approved Document L sets the standard a renovated roof is expected to reach.

No rate per square metre. The figure is driven by access and by how much edge there is, since the edge is where an exposed plot loses a roof. Edge work or a full strip is the biggest single difference, because dry fixing is priced by the metre of edge. Access is in your favour here, because plots are open with room for a lorry and somewhere for a scaffold or tower to stand. It is still work at height and the work at height rules are why the platform is a priced line. Chimneys, valleys and abutments are priced one at a time.

Properties here sit in the open with the exposed elevation facing south west, with none of the shelter a village street gives you. That is why the ridge, hips and verges are the first things we look at rather than the field of the roof, and why a mechanically fixed edge is worth more here than two miles inland.

The other half is the trees: heath and pine on most sides means the gutters want looking at more often, and the debris behaves differently enough that clearing the gutter alone will not fix an overflow.