Roofing in Ridge

Purbeck stone slate. 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.

No rate per square metre. Getting a lorry to a Ridge address is half the conversation. The lanes are narrow with soft verges and nowhere to turn, so where the scaffold stands and how the material arrives is worked out on the first visit. On soft ground a platform wants proper sole plates, and on the smaller cottages a tower does more of the work than it would in town. This is work at height and the work at height rules are why the platform is a priced line. Chimneys and valleys are priced one at a time.

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 rather than after.

Two things follow. The covering is the big one. 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 rather than guess at it. The other 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.

About ten miles from us, covering Ridge, Stoborough, Arne and the BH20 addresses south of Wareham, with Dorset Council 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.