Roofing in Rockbourne

What is up there. Slipped, cracked and missing tile work, storm damage, and a leak traced back to where water genuinely enters rather than patched where the stain shows.

What is up there varies far more in Rockbourne than on an estate: plain clay tile and natural slate on the older cottages and farm buildings, concrete interlocking tile on the post-war houses, and a few of the oldest roofs and porches still carrying stone slate. On a small stone slate roof the slates are usually sound and it is the pegs behind them that have gone, which makes it a strip, sort and relay. You do not need a new covering.

Ridge, verge and re-covering. Mortar bedding cracks before anything else, and once it does the ridge tiles rock and a verge loses its bedding. We either re-bed to match what is there or convert to a dry fix system, dry ridge and dry verge screwed onto a ventilated roll, the mechanical fixing BS 5534 expects, and on a slope the lane can see we talk through which of the two you want first. When the nails have gone and the felt tears at a touch, the new covering goes on breathable membrane and treated battens after soft rafter feet are cut out. Older roofs in Rockbourne have no sarking board, so the underlay is the whole of the second line of defence, and sound clay tiles and slates get sorted and go back on the elevation that shows.

We do not thatch, and we say so. Nobody learns on your house. Where a tiled or slated roof abuts thatch we work up to it, form the lead and leave the thatch to a thatcher. Flashings, soakers, valleys and abutments go in code rated lead cut short enough to move without splitting, and a stack finished with a mortar fillet instead of a flashing is the commonest leak in older property in Rockbourne. Rear extensions, garages and porches in felt, GRP fibreglass or EPDM rubber all last when the deck is sound and the falls, upstands and outlet are right.

Cast iron rainwater goods are worth repairing rather than ripping off, and slopes under trees hold moss that packs the gutter and the valley below. With Sweatfords Water running close to some of these addresses and land here in flood zone 3, a gutter discharging onto the ground rather than into a drain is worth putting right while we are there. Insulation, eaves ventilation and condensation are far cheaper to sort with the roof open, and Approved Document L sets the standard a renovated roof is expected to reach.

Rockbourne roofs are not priced by the square metre. On an older roof in a village like this, matching, underlay, lead and access move the price far more than its size does.

Matching. Weathered clay tiles or old slate do not match new stock in colour or size. Sound ones are saved from the strip, reclaimed ones make up the numbers, and new ones go where they show least. On a listed roof that is often the only acceptable way to do it.

What the roof has been living without. Plenty of older Rockbourne roofs have no underlay at all, just battens and a mortar torching on the underside. Re-covering one means new battens, a breathable membrane, and sometimes packing out rafters that have dipped with age.

Lead. Chimneys, valleys and abutments are each priced on their own, and the code of the lead matters, because thin lead on a chimney back gutter cracks within a few winters.

Getting there. A village street with verges, no pavement and little room to park means the scaffold may be hand loaded and the materials brought in one delivery. The work at height rules keep the scaffold as a separate line.

Ask other roofers what code of lead is going on the chimney, whether the battens and membrane are being renewed or reused, and how they will match the tiles you can see from the lane.

Sweatfords Water runs through Rockbourne and the low ground either side of it sits inside the mapped flood zones, which you can check on the government flood map. That changes nothing about how a roof is covered. It changes how seriously to take the rainwater goods underneath it.

On higher ground a gutter that runs over twice a winter is a nuisance. Down by the brook it puts a storm's worth of water straight down a wall and into ground already holding all it can. So on those addresses we would rather take the downpipes to a positive outfall than into a soakaway that will not empty, and Approved Document H governs where surface water is allowed to go.

The practical version: get the gutters, valleys and downpipes cleared before the autumn rather than after the first blocked run, and if a downpipe currently discharges at the foot of a wall, sort that at the same time as whatever brought us out.

Rockbourne is 16 miles from our base in Boscombe. We cover the village and the SP6 lanes around it, through Whitsbury and Breamore to Sandleheath and Fordingbridge. New Forest District Council handles planning and building control. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Rockbourne, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

The owner, Thomas Hannen, makes the trip to look at your roof and price it himself. A verified customer on Checkatrade has given us 10 out of 10. The visit is free, and so is the itemised quote in writing.

Most repairs in Rockbourne 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.