Roofing in Merritown
Repairs, edge work, re-covers and rainwater goods on the lanes around Merritown and Hurn, priced in writing after a proper look in the loft.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Out here the roof and where its water ends up are one job. The ground around Merritown struggles to take a downpour, so a blocked downpipe does more harm than the slipped tile that started it.
Out in Merritown, roof trouble often begins inside the house. Water has come through an upstairs ceiling after a wet week and nobody can say where it starts. The gutters have run over again despite being cleared in the autumn. Or a roof that nobody has touched since it went on is due an honest opinion on how much life is left in it.
We climb it, look at it again from inside the loft, take photographs, and trace the water from the ridge down to the gully it ought to be leaving by. Addresses here sit on their own, so the outbuildings get surveyed at the same visit, so you are not paying for a second one. Then you are told plainly whether this is a fixing job, an edge job, or a covering that has run out of life. If an upstairs ceiling in Merritown is letting water through as you read this, ring 07435 839745 and we will talk you through it. The site visit and the written quote are both free.
The work
Every downpipe wants a gully, not a splash pad
Every downpipe wants a gully. It matters more on this ground than most. This ground sits in flood zone 2 with a high surface water risk and the Moors running under a kilometre away, so where the roof puts its water is not a detail. We re-fall the gutter, renew rainwater goods where the joints have had it, and see that each downpipe finishes in a gully rather than on a splash pad against the wall.
Ridge, hips and verges. Mortar bedding is the first thing to give out on an open plot, since weather picks at the edges and leaves the middle alone, and the exposed elevation here faces south west. Off it comes, and a dry fix system goes on: dry ridge onto a ventilated roll, dry verge units down the gable, screwed instead of stuck, which is the mechanical fixing BS 5534 asks for.
Most roofs out in Merritown are concrete tile, much of it interlocking, with plain tile, clay tile and natural slate on the older cottages and farm buildings. We do not work on thatch and say so on the phone so we do not waste your morning. Where thatch adjoins a tiled part we deal with that side, and the flashing along the join is the leak.
Where old felt laps into the gutter it goes brittle and splits, and that split is behind most of the wet fascia boards we cut out. Once the nails, battens and underlay have reached the end together, off comes the covering, soft timber comes out, and the new roof goes down on breathable membrane and treated battens. If the covering still has life in it and the trouble is one loose ridge, a slipped tile or a single leak, see roof repairs in Merritown instead. Garages, workshops and stables in felt, GRP fibreglass or EPDM rubber, deck priced before the covering is chosen. Lead flashing to the chimney and lined valleys in code rated sheet. With the roof open, insulation and eaves ventilation are cheap, and Approved Document L is the standard a renovated roof gets measured against.
How it runs
How a Merritown re-roof goes, from first call to clear-up
You ring, and Thomas drives out to Merritown, looks at the roof and prices it himself. That one quote then covers the work from the first scaffold tube to the last sweep of the drive.
The written quote is itemised: scaffold, stripping the old covering, new battens and breathable membrane, the tiles or slates, each chimney, valley and abutment with its lead flashing, the rainwater goods and the skip. That way you can hold it against another firm's price line by line.
Access out in Merritown is about the lane and the ground. Before the scaffold lorry is booked we check it can reach the elevation that needs the work, and that the base will sit on something firm, because this area carries a high surface water rating and a verge after a wet week is no footing. We only strip what can be covered again that day, and the old covering leaves with us. If a rotten rafter or a soft wall plate turns up once the tiles are off, you are shown a photograph and given a price before anyone touches it.
Merritown has no conservation area, so on an unlisted house a like for like re-cover, a repair or a rooflight is normally householder permitted development, as Planning Portal guidance explains. The parish does have listed entries and listed building consent governs those, so the address is checked first. Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council deals with planning and building control.
Cost
What moves the price of a roof on this side of Hurn
A roof this side of Hurn has no rate per square metre, because two roofs of the same size can be very different jobs.
The platform. Scaffold is its own line under the work at height rules. On a house set back along a private drive, the questions are how close the lorry gets and whether the standards can go on hard ground instead of wet grass. How long it stands matters as much as how much of it there is.
The weather side. The most exposed elevation here faces south west, and driven rain works at the verges, the ridge and the abutments. The middle of the slope gets off lightly. BS 5534 sets the fixing for that exposure, so a re-cover can need more clips and nails than the old roof ever had.
What is under the tiles. Perished felt, battens gone soft at the eaves, or a stack with tired lead all add lines. Chimneys, valleys and abutments are priced one at a time, because each is its own piece of work with its own flashing.
Where the water lands. A roof here sheds onto ground that is slow to drain, so a gutter or downpipe may need resetting as part of the job, not left for later.
Before you sign anything, ask: is the scaffold in the price, and for how long? Are the battens and underlay being renewed, or only the tiles? Who pays for the skip?
If it is leaking now
Rain getting through the roof right now
Ring us rather than filling in the form. If water is coming through a ceiling, put a bucket under it and move anything electrical out of the way. Then look at the gutter above the wet patch and the gully at the foot of the downpipe, because on this wet ground an overflow at the eaves is a common way in.
The first visit is about making the roof safe and watertight with a sheet or a temporary cover, and the proper repair is priced once it has dried and we can see where the water really got in. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If you ring and nobody picks up, we call you back as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
Where the roof water goes matters more here
Merritown sits in flood zone 2 and is rated high for surface water, and that is the one local fact that should change what you ask a roofer to do. You can have a perfect covering and still get water where you do not want it, because after a wet spell the ground has nothing left to take a downpour with.
So the rainwater side is priced as part of the roof, never as an afterthought. The gutter is set to a proper fall rather than re-hung on the old brackets, outlets are renewed where they have gone brittle, and every downpipe finishes somewhere that actually takes water. A soakaway on saturated ground backs up and pushes water at the wall instead, so a positive outfall is usually the better answer. Worth checking your own address on the government flood risk service first, because it changes the order you do the work in.
Who you are dealing with
Who comes out to look at your roof
Merritown sits in Hurn parish, BH23, about 3.6 miles from our base in Boscombe. It comes under Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, the same authority as Bournemouth and Christchurch. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Merritown, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
The business is Thomas Hannen's, and Thomas is the one who gets on the ladder and prices your roof. On Checkatrade, a verified customer gave us 10 out of 10. There is no charge for the site visit, or for the written quote with each item set out.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Merritown?
Most repairs in Merritown 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.
| Question | In Merritown |
|---|---|
| Who decides | BCP Council is the planning authority for Merritown. BCP Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Merritown, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Merritown. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Merritown. |
Questions
Questions about roofing in Merritown
We are in flood zone 2. Does that affect roof work?
Not the covering, but it changes what happens to the water once it is off the roof. Merritown sits in flood zone 2 with a high surface water rating and the Moors runs about a kilometre away, so a downpipe feeding a soakaway that is already saturated simply backs up and spills at the wall. We look at where every downpipe ends before quoting, and will say if the answer is a proper drain connection.
How soon could somebody look at an active leak here?
Merritown is 3.6 miles from our Boscombe base, a short drive out past the airport. The first visit is about stopping it, sheeting the slope or fitting a temporary cover, not about pricing. We come back and quote once it has dried out, because chasing a leak in driving rain shows you where the water lands rather than where it got in.
Water comes in around the rooflight instead of the tiles.
That is where it usually gets in around Merritown. The most exposed elevation faces south west and driven rain works at openings and edges before the middle of a slope, so a rooflight upstand, a soil vent or a flashing takes the punishment first. The lead or the seal fails, the water tracks along a rafter and appears several feet from the actual hole. We test with a hose from the bottom upwards.
Does the council need telling before we re-cover out here?
For a like for like re-cover, no. There is no conservation area over Merritown and only three listed entries in the area, so most houses here are ordinary permitted development and Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole hear nothing about it. Building regulations can still apply where a large part of the covering is renewed, which is about insulation and the state of the structure, not appearance, and we allow for it.
What do you actually look at in the loft?
The underside of the felt for daylight and tide marks, the tops of the rafters for dark staining, the nail heads for rust, and the wall plate where the roof sits down on the brickwork. Damp on one side of a chimney is usually flashing, and a dark line down a single rafter is usually a slipped tile above it. The photographs go out with the quote so you can see what we saw.
Nearby, and next door
Roofing near Merritown
Nearby places we also cover for roofing, with straight-line distances from Merritown, and the other trades we offer in Merritown itself.
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Get your Merritown roof looked at properly
A free site visit, a look in the loft as well as on the roof, and an itemised written quote you can compare against anyone else's.