Roofing in Merley

Ridge, hip and verge. Seventy seven per cent of Merley went up between 1945 and 1982, and nearly half of everything here in the 1970s and early 1980s, so these roofs are one cohort ageing together and the edges fail together. Ridge and hip tiles on an estate house of that age are bedded in mortar, and mortar that has weathered since the houses went up cracks and lets the tiles rock. We take the lot off and convert to dry ridge and dry verge screwed onto a ventilated roll. BS 5534 is the code that calls for mechanical fixing at the edges, and the roll lets the roof space breathe along the ridge.

Gutters, fascias and soffits. A lot of Merley rainwater goods were clad or replaced once already, and uPVC screwed over rotten timber hides the problem instead of curing it, so we take a board off and look. Plenty of the leaks we get called to are a gutter tipping water down the wall behind a fascia, or a downpipe emptying onto a path. On ground that shrinks and swells, where a downpipe finishes matters more than it looks.

Nearly every roof on the estates here is concrete tile, most of it interlocking, and the tile is in better order than whatever is holding it down, so the culprit is a rusted nail, a lost clip or a junction. Along the older lanes towards Canford you get plain tile, clay tile and natural slate over felt with no sarking board. The bitumen felt underlay of the 1970s perishes where it laps into the gutter, the one place it has to be sound, so we check it from inside before anyone talks about a roof coming off.

When the nails have gone and the underlay tears as soon as it is touched, the covering comes off, wet timber is cut out, and it goes back on breathable membrane and treated battens with a matched tile. The join where a garage roof runs into the main slope is where most flat roofs here let go, so the deck comes first. Cement smeared over a failed flashing is the commonest bad repair we take off a roof here, and it goes back in code rated lead. With the covering off and the platform already paid for, insulation and eaves ventilation cost a fraction of what the same work costs as its own visit, and Approved Document L is the standard a renovated roof has to reach.

No rate per square metre. Merley is kind ground for access. Estate roads, off street parking and a drive to stand on mean the platform goes up without a permit or a road closure, and a bungalow needs a good deal less of it than a two storey detached, which matters where three in ten homes are bungalows. This is 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. Ask whether the scaffold is in the price and who pays for the skip.

About three quarters of the houses here went up between the war and the early 1980s, most of them in one long build through the 1970s. Those roofs were tiled within a few years of each other, using the same mortar and the same nails, so they wear out together. That is why a run of streets starts shedding ridge mortar in the same couple of winters.

Two things follow. A neighbour having the whole roof stripped is not evidence that yours is due: two houses built the same month can be years apart, depending on which slope catches the weather and whether anybody kept the gutters clear. And since the mortar and the fixings tire long before the tile does, the honest question on most Merley roofs is whether new edges will do instead. Have both priced on one sheet and decide with the figures in front of you.

Just under six miles from us, covering Merley, Bearwood, Canford Magna and the BH21 addresses either side of the river towards Wimborne, with Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole for planning and building control. 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.