Roofing in Parkstone

Around Ashley Cross and the older streets of Lower Parkstone the houses are brick with natural slate roofs and big chimneys. Slate itself lasts a very long time. The iron nails holding it usually do not, and when they rust through the slates slide one at a time.

That is nail sickness. A few slipped slates are refixed with copper tingles or clips. When they are going all over the slope, patching is money down the drain, so we strip the slope, fit new treated battens on a breathable membrane, and re-slate with copper nails, reusing the sound slates and matching the rest. BS 5534 sets the fixing for the exposure, and we work to it.

Chimneys and leadwork. Tall stacks are part of how these houses look, and they are where most leaks start. We check the flashings, the soakers down the side, the back gutter behind the stack and the flaunching on top. Lead that has split or been sealed with mastic is replaced in code rated lead and dressed properly. Valleys between two slopes get the same treatment.

Upper Parkstone terraces and semis. Up the hill the housing is smaller, artisan terraces and inter-war and post-war semis, many of them re-covered years ago in concrete interlocking tile. Some of those went straight onto the old battens with no underlay, and a concrete tile is heavier than the slate or plain clay tile it replaced, so we look at the rafters from the loft before we price a re-roof. Mortar bedded ridges and hips crack and let water in; we rebed them, or swap to a dry fix ridge and dry verge so there is no mortar left to fail.

Small repairs. Cracked or missing tiles, storm damage, moss and debris blocking a valley, a leak we have to trace from the loft. Most of these take hours, not days.

The flat bits. Back additions, bay tops and dormers often carry felt that has had its day. We re-cover them in EPDM rubber, GRP fibreglass or felt once we know the deck and the fall to the outlet are sound; there is more on our flat roofing in Parkstone page. Rotten boards and failed gutters at the eaves are covered on the fascias and guttering page.

The loft, while it is open. With the covering off, loft insulation and eaves ventilation cost far less to sort, and it is the moment to fix any condensation problem.

When would we talk you out of a new roof? When the slates are sound and only the fixings have gone on one slope, or when the leak is a flashing. Then we say so. If all you have is one slipped slate, a cracked flaunching or a single leak to chase down, our page on roof repairs in Parkstone covers that kind of job.

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. A slate roofed villa near the station, an Upper Parkstone terrace fronting the pavement and a 1930s semi with a side drive are three quite different scaffolds. 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 the whole of Parkstone, from Ashley Road and Heatherlands on the higher ground down to Ashley Cross and Penn Hill, across BH12 and BH14, under BCP Council.

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 Parkstone, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Parkstone 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.