Roofing in Ridge

On a stone roof the stone is almost never the problem. The oak peg rots, the batten behind it softens, and a slate slips with a hundred more above it waiting to do the same.

Re-laying, rather than a re-roof in something else, is the job: every slate numbered and set aside, the battens renewed, a breathable membrane laid where there was only torching before, and the original stone put back in diminishing courses. Shortfalls are made up with reclaimed stone, not bought new off a pallet.

Weight, and the rafters under it. A stone slate roof is several times the dead load of a concrete tile one, so before anything is quoted we want to see the rafter feet and the wall plate. Nobody should put stone back onto tired timber, and nobody should swap it for concrete tile to save money.

Plain tile on peg and nib on the later cottages, natural slate where the roof was re-done in the nineteenth century, concrete tile since the war. Where a cottage is thatched we leave the thatch to a thatcher and take the tiled outshut and the lead between the two. On tiled and slated roofs we strip the cracked mortar bedding and convert to dry ridge and dry verge screwed onto a vented roll, the mechanical fixing BS 5534 expects. On a stone roof that is not the right answer and we say so: the ridge is re-bedded in a lime based mortar that suits what it sits on.

Chimney flashings, soakers and valleys in code rated lead. Stone and lead sit together well, which is why the old work here is lead and why it is worth replacing in kind. Open ground and heath either side means debris in the gutters and downpipes and algae and moss on any slope that does not get the sun, so clearing them out is regular work, and a fascia that stays wet behind a blocked run rots before anything else does, the soffit with it. With the roof open, insulation and eaves ventilation are far cheaper, and Approved Document L sets the standard a renovated roof is expected to reach.

A roof out towards Arne has no rate per square metre. On a roof here the price is set by getting to it and by the details at its edges.

The lane and the ground. Getting a lorry to the door is half the conversation. Where a scaffold has to stand on a soft verge or wet garden clay, it goes down on proper sole plates, and on a low cottage roof a tower may do more of the work than it would in town. The work at height rules are why the platform is its own line and not tucked into a rate.

The weather side. The most exposed slope of a roof here usually faces south west, and wind and driven rain work at the edges before the middle: verges, ridge and the eaves course. Fixing to BS 5534 means more clips and nails in those places than an older roof ever had, and that is time.

What turns up underneath. Battens gone soft, an underlay that has perished, or rafter feet rotted where a gutter has overflowed only show once the covering is off. Chimneys and valleys are priced one at a time, because each has its own lead and its own hours. If all you need is one slipped slate mended or one drip stopped, that smaller job has its own page, roof repairs in Ridge.

Holding two quotes side by side? Ask whether the battens and membrane are being renewed or left, how the verges and ridge will be fixed against the wind, and whether the scaffold and the skip are in the figure you have been given.

The whole of this corner sits in the Dorset National Landscape, and the practical effect on a roof is not a form to fill in. It is that the appearance of what you put back matters more here than it would on an estate, and that is worth knowing before you choose.

The covering matters most. Going from stone or clay to a modern concrete profile is the change people notice from the lane, and on a roof that reads as part of the landscape it is worth matching what came off even where nothing obliges you to.

Reclaimed stone and clay both exist, and we price them beside the alternative so you can see the gap for yourself. Then there is anything standing proud of the slope. A standard rooflight sits above the plane and shows, a conservation pattern sits flush and does not, and that is a decision made at quote stage rather than on the morning the scaffold goes up.

Ridge sits on the harbour side of Wareham in Arne parish, 11.9 miles from our base at 80a Wolverton Road, Boscombe. The same run takes in Stoborough and the BH20 lanes out towards Arne, and Dorset Council deals with planning and building control for all of it.

The company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales under company number 15471719. It is Thomas Hannen's business, and Thomas is the one who climbs the ladder and prices your roof. A verified customer gave us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit costs you nothing, and neither does the written, itemised quote. Before you book a visit in Ridge, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Ridge 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.