Roofing in Sixpenny Handley
Edge work, repairs, re-covering, leadwork and rainwater goods across Sixpenny Handley and the SP5 downs. 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.
On high open ground the wind does not take a roof off. It works at the edges. That is why most of what we do in Sixpenny Handley is ridge, hip and verge work rather than a full re-cover, and why the two are priced so differently.
The village sits along the top of the downs with very little between it and the weather. After a rough week the calls are the same. Mortar chippings on the drive and a ridge tile sitting at an angle. A verge cap gone off a gable end. Tiles slipped on the exposed side of a roof while the sheltered side has not moved in forty years.
We come out, get up on it, put our head into the loft and photograph what we find. The site visit and the written itemised quote are both free. Most of the time the survey ends with a repair and a date. Where the covering genuinely has finished, we show you the photographs that say so.
The work
Exposed up here, sheltered two miles away
Ridge, hip and verge. The commonest job up here by a distance. Mortar bedding along a ridge or a verge has been in the weather since the roof went on, and once it cracks the wind gets under the tile and starts rocking it. We strip it off and 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 into the bargain. It is priced by the metre of edge.
Coverings and junctions. Coverings vary street by street here. Flint and brick cottages in the old part of the village carry plain clay tile and natural slate, the later houses concrete interlocking tile, and there is the odd stone slate roof left on an outbuilding. There is thatch in the parish and we do not touch it, so where a tiled roof abuts a thatched one we work up to the junction, form the lead and leave the thatch to a thatcher. On the older cottages the usual find is a mortar fillet where a flashing should be, and flashings, soakers and valleys go back in code rated lead.
On a strip and re-cover the roof goes back on breathable membrane and treated battens with fixings and clips specified for an exposed pitch, which is not the same specification as a sheltered valley two miles away. There is no sarking board on most roofs here, so the underlay does all of the work behind the tile, and an exposed flat roof wants its edge trim looked at, because that is where wind gets a purchase. Gutters and downpipes fill with debris blown off the fields, and clearing them is what saves the fascia and soffit behind. This is Cranborne Chase, where anything visible attracts design scrutiny, so a change of covering is discussed before it is ordered. With the covering off, insulation and eaves ventilation are cheap to sort, and getting that airflow right is what keeps condensation out of the loft afterwards, with Approved Document L setting the standard a renovated roof is expected to reach.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
The quote is itemised line by line, so you can hold it against anyone else's. Sixpenny Handley has no conservation area of its own, so on an unlisted house a like for like re-cover, a repair, new rainwater goods and rooflights all sit inside ordinary householder permitted development. No planning permission, no application and no building control sign-off, as long as nothing stands more than 150mm above the roof plane, and Planning Portal guidance sets out the limits. A handful of buildings in the parish are listed and those need listed building consent whatever the work, so we check the address before pricing. Dorset Council for planning and building control.
Cost
What decides the price of a roof
No rate per square metre. Up here it is less about room and more about weather. Plots are generally open with space for a scaffold, a tower and a lorry, but an exposed gable in a strong week is a day nobody is working on it and the platform still stands, so we allow for that rather than discover it. Because this is work at height work at height rules make the platform a priced line. Comparing quotes, ask what grade of lead goes on the chimney and who pays for the skip.
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. Storm damage up here means cracked bedding and missing tiles at the edges rather than a hole in the middle. If a ridge tile or verge cap has come down, keep people and cars off that side of the house until we have been, because on a windy site the next one follows. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Everything here is seen from somewhere
The village sits inside the Cranborne Chase National Landscape, and the practical effect on a roof is not paperwork. It is that a roof up here is visible from a long way off across open downland, so a covering that does not match reads as a mistake from half a mile away as well as from the pavement.
A like for like repair is unaffected by any of that. What it changes is what happens when the tile on your roof is no longer made. The cheap route substitutes the nearest current product and accepts a patch that never blends. We would rather source a reclaimed match, or lift sound tiles from a rear slope onto the elevation that is seen and put the new ones at the back.
So on a repair here we take a sample tile off and show you the match before anything is ordered.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
About seventeen miles from us, covering Sixpenny Handley, Woodcutts, Pentridge and the surrounding SP5 addresses along the top of the Chase. 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
Sixpenny Handley questions we get asked
Does the Cranborne Chase designation control what my roof looks like?
It brings design scrutiny to anything that can be seen. Sixpenny Handley sits inside the Cranborne Chase and West Wiltshire Downs landscape designation, which is a policy layer rather than a line drawn round the village, and it weighs on colour, profile and finish where a roof reads from open ground. On a like for like repair it changes nothing. On a change of covering, ring Dorset Council first.
Who signs off roof work here, Dorset Council or somebody else?
Dorset Council, and nobody else. There is no district office in this part of the county and no national park boundary over the village, so planning and building control both sit in the same place. The parish takes in seven listed entries, the Church of St Mary among them, and if your building is on that list the consent comes from that same office. Most repairs here need nothing submitted.
Do you charge to come out this far for a look?
The site visit costs nothing and neither does the written itemised quote that follows it. Sixpenny Handley is around seventeen miles from base, so calls out this way tend to get grouped into one day rather than making the trip twice in a week. Thomas does the looking and the pricing himself, so what comes back to you is a proper quote rather than a figure guessed at from an office.
The roof is seen from the fields. Does that limit the tile?
It steers the choice more than it limits it. Where a roof reads across open downland the designation makes colour and surface matter, so a bright interlocking tile on a building visible from the lanes draws attention that the same tile tucked between houses never would. A matt finish close to what came off passes without an argument. We bring samples to the visit and look at them outdoors.
What should I check after a gale before calling you?
Walk the perimeter and look on the ground for pieces first, then look up at the ridge line for a tile sitting out of true. Check the loft for daylight and for damp on the timbers rather than only on the ceiling below. Gutters full of grit mean the covering is shedding its surface. None of that needs a ladder, and a photograph from the ground is enough to work from.
Nearby, and next door
Roofing near Sixpenny Handley
Roofing nearby
Our other trades in Sixpenny Handley
Roofing guides
Concrete vs clay roof tiles: which is right? Planning, building regs or listed building consent Storm damage to a roof: the first 24 hoursEverything we do in Verwood Roofing, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get the Sixpenny Handley roof priced properly
Send the postcode and what you have noticed. We come out, get on the roof and put it in writing, itemised, for nothing.