Roofing in Rockbourne
Repairs, re-covering, leadwork, flat roofs and rainwater goods across Rockbourne and the SP6 lanes. Free site visit, free written itemised quote.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Rockbourne is a conservation area, so the covering you already have is usually the covering you keep. A like for like repair or re-cover is maintenance and needs no application. Changing the material is a different question, and it is cheaper to ask before the tiles are ordered than after.
Two calls come out of the village more than any others. A slate or a plain tile has gone in a gale and a wet patch has appeared on a bedroom ceiling. Or the lead round a chimney has lifted and the same stain keeps returning after every long spell of rain.
We come out, get on the roof, put our head into the loft and photograph what is up there. Then you are told which of three things you have: a repair that will hold, edge and junction work that buys a long time, or a covering that has finished. The site visit and the written itemised quote are both free, and if the survey says do nothing this year, that is what you get told.
The work
Stone slate is still on the odd porch here
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 here 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 rather than 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 here 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 rather than learn 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 here. 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.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
You get an itemised quote, and a photograph and a price before we carry on if the strip turns up something nobody could have seen. Rockbourne is a conservation area, so appearance is controlled even where the work is not. A like for like repair or re-cover needs no planning permission and no building control sign-off, but a change of covering, or a rooflight standing more than 150mm above the roof plane on a slope facing the lane, falls outside ordinary permitted development, and Planning Portal guidance sets out the limits. Listed buildings need consent whatever the work, and the parish has plenty of them, so we check the address before pricing. New Forest District Council here.
Cost
What decides the price of a roof
No rate per square metre. Rockbourne strings out along a single lane with houses close to it and verges rather than kerbs, so the first question on a re-roof is where the scaffold and the lorry can stand. Some addresses have a yard or a field gate; others need material barrowed in and the scaffold hand loaded. This is work at height, and work at height rules are why the platform is a priced line. When you compare quotes, ask what grade of lead is going on the chimney and whether battens and membrane are renewed or simply covered over.
If it is leaking now
Water coming in today
Ring rather than use the form. Anything letting water in goes to the front of the queue, and the first visit is about making it safe. Tell us which room and which corner the water is showing in, because on an old roof with valleys and abutments the entry point is rarely above the stain. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Where the roof water goes matters more here
Sweatfords Water runs through the village 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.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
About seventeen miles from us, covering Rockbourne and the SP6 addresses out through Whitsbury, Breamore and Sandleheath towards Fordingbridge. 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.
Questions
Rockbourne questions we get asked
Does the Rockbourne conservation area stop me changing the covering?
Changing it is the part that gets looked at. Rockbourne has its own conservation area and appearance is controlled inside the boundary. Putting back what came off, tile for tile or slate for slate, counts as maintenance. Moving from one material to another alters how the village reads and has to be agreed with New Forest District Council first. We hold the order until that is settled rather than after.
Sweatfords Water runs close by. Does that affect roof work?
It affects the setting down more than the roof itself. Sweatfords Water is about thirteen metres from the built edge, and the village falls in flood zones 2 and 3, so skips, spoil and stacked tiles stay off the soft ground near the bank. Nothing gets tipped where run off can reach the watercourse. Up on the covering the job is no different to anywhere inland.
My cottage faces the church. Is it likely to be listed?
There is a fair chance of it. The parish carries 52 listed entries, a lot for somewhere this size, and they run from the Church of St Andrew through to farm buildings such as the barn east of the Manor House. Listing and the conservation area are two separate controls and one building can sit under both. New Forest District Council will confirm which apply to your address.
You are nearly seventeen miles out. Will you come for one tile?
We do, though it gets planned rather than dropped everything for. Rockbourne is roughly seventeen miles from base, so a single slipped tile is normally picked up on a day we are already working that side of the county, while water actually running into the house moves up the list. Thomas comes out to look and to price it, and neither the visit nor the written quote costs anything.
Can I put a rooflight in on the road elevation?
That is precisely what the designation here is written to control. Anything seen from the village street changes the character of the group, so a new opening on that side is judged very differently from one on the garden slope. Ask New Forest District Council before the unit is ordered. Where the front is refused, the rear slope is often accepted and the daylight indoors ends up much the same.
Nearby, and next door
Roofing near Rockbourne
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Get your Rockbourne roof looked at properly
Tell us the postcode and what you have noticed. We come out, get on the roof and put it in writing, itemised, for nothing.