Roofing in Redlynch

A spread out roof is nearly all edge. Redlynch is mostly detached houses and bungalows, and a spread out single storey roof carries a lot of edge for the floor area under it. Every hip is a run of mortar bedding that has been weathering since the house was built, and once it cracks the tiles start rocking. We take it off and fit dry ridge and dry verge screwed onto a ventilated roll, the mechanical fixing BS 5534 expects.

A fair amount of Redlynch predates the First World War. On the post-war houses it is concrete tile, mostly interlocking, and the covering nearly always outlives the nail or clip holding it, so the fault is a fixing. On the older cottages it is plain tile, clay tile or natural slate on battens with no sarking beneath, and there it is the tile that has finally worn out. Thatch we decline and say so up front: tiling and flashing to the edge of it is ours, the thatch is a thatcher's.

Rusted nails, soft batten ends and an underlay that tears in your fingers all arrive together, and that is when patching stops being value for money. The covering comes off, wet rafter feet come out, and it goes back on breathable membrane and treated battens with a matched tile. On a long low roof the area surprises people, so it is worth having the re-cover priced next to the repair rather than assuming. Where a flat roof runs into a tiled slope rather than up a wall, that junction is the part that fails. Chimney flashings, soakers, valleys and abutments in code rated lead. Shaded northern slopes hold moss, and clearing debris out of a valley is maintenance rather than repair, and Approved Document L sets the standard a renovated roof is expected to reach once the covering is off.

A roof in Redlynch parish has no rate per square metre. Two roofs of the same size in this parish can be very different jobs, for these reasons.

How old the roof is. The cottages built before the First World War often carry handmade clay tiles or slate on thin, uneven battens, with no underlay, and a ridge bedded in lime mortar. Re-covering one means new battens and membrane throughout, and care with the tiles worth saving. A post-war bungalow is more likely to have concrete interlocking tiles on felt gone brittle at the eaves, which strips faster.

The ground the scaffold stands on. On a sloping plot the scaffold is built up off uneven ground, which takes longer than a level drive, and a lane the lorry cannot get down means carrying tubes and boards in. The work at height rules are why the platform is a line of its own and not an extra you can drop.

Chimneys, valleys and abutments. Each stack, valley and wall abutment is priced one at a time, because each has its own lead or mortar work, and an old stack often wants repointing while the scaffold is up anyway.

What is under the tiles. Rot in a rafter foot or a wall plate only shows once the covering is off, which is why the quote says what happens if it is found.

Before you sign with anyone, ask whether the battens and membrane are new or reused, what lead goes on the chimney, and who pays for the scaffold and the skip.

Redlynch is 18.2 miles from our base on Wolverton Road in Boscombe. We cover the whole parish, from the village out to Woodfalls, Morgan's Vale and Lover, and the SP5 roads south of Downton. Planning and building control here are Wiltshire Council's.

Thomas Hannen owns the firm and is the one who climbs the ladder and prices your roof. Its legal name is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. One verified customer marked us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The site visit and the written, itemised quote are both free. Before you book a visit in Redlynch, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Redlynch 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.