Roofing in Ringwood

Repairs, and what is up there. Slipped, cracked and missing tile work, storm damage, and a leak traced back to where the water genuinely enters rather than patched where the stain shows. On the estates it is nearly all concrete tile and most of that interlocking, where the tile outlives the nail or clip holding it, so the fault is a fixing. In the older streets it is plain tile, clay tile and natural slate, sometimes with no membrane at all beneath. There is no stone slate in this county, and the thatch out towards the Forest we decline, so if a thatched roof adjoins yours we say at the visit what we can take on.

Ridge, verge and the valleys. On anything built before dry fixing became normal the ridge and the verge were bedded in mortar, and mortar has a shorter life than everything around it. Rather than re-bedding the same detail we convert to a dry fix system, dry ridge and dry verge screwed onto a ventilated roll, the mechanical fixing BS 5534 expects, which vents the roof space along the ridge as well. On a period roof where the ridge is part of the look of the building we re-bed instead and explain why. Valleys earn their own line here, because the houses have busy plan shapes with projecting gables and back additions, and every one of those makes a valley. A valley takes water off two slopes at once, so when it silts up or the lead beneath splits, what arrives inside is not a drip. We line them in code rated lead where the detail allows, and cut flashings, soakers and abutments so the lead can move without splitting. Most leaks in both halves of the town start at a junction, not in the middle of a slope.

Under the covering sit the battens, the underlay and the rafter feet. Felt of a certain age tears where it laps into the gutter, the one place it has to be sound, and there is no sarking board on the older roofs to hold anything once the nails let go, so we check from the loft before saying a word about re-covering. When nails, battens and underlay have gone together the covering comes off, soft timber is replaced, and it goes back on breathable membrane and treated battens with a matched tile or slate. Flat roofs on garages, rear extensions, dormers and the flats above the shops go in felt, GRP fibreglass or EPDM rubber, and all three last when the deck is sound and the falls, upstands and outlet are right.

More of the leaks we attend here turn out to be rainwater goods than tiles. A crept joint, a dropped bracket or a downpipe blocked with moss puts water down a wall instead of into a drain, and on ground that shrinks and swells with the weather, where that water ends up beside a foundation is a structural question rather than only a damp one. While the covering is off, insulation, eaves ventilation and any condensation problem cost far less to sort, and Approved Document L sets the standard a renovated roof should reach.

No rate per square metre. Access splits with the town. On the estates there is a drive and a side gate, so the scaffold stands on your own ground; around the market place the frontages are tight, there is often no way round the back, and material goes through the house. Because this is work at height work at height rules make the platform a priced line. Comparing quotes, ask whether the scaffold is in the price, whether battens and membrane are renewed or covered over, and who pays for the skip.

The ground under a good deal of Ringwood is cohesive, and cohesive ground shrinks when it dries and swells when it wets. That makes a downpipe discharging beside a wall a structural question rather than just a damp one, because a soaking that comes and goes moves the ground next to a foundation, and that is a far more expensive problem than the gutter that caused it.

So on this patch we treat the rainwater goods as part of the roof rather than an afterthought at the end of a quote. Every downpipe should end in a gully or a proper connection, not on a slab or in a border, the gully should be clear, and a shoe that has been knocked off is worth fixing the same week. Approved Document H sets out what surface water should discharge into.

Where downpipes run to a soakaway it needs to be far enough from the building to be doing any good, and we will say when one plainly is not.

About ten miles from us, covering Ringwood, Hangersley, Poulner and the BH24 addresses around the town, with New Forest District 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.