Roofing in Sopley

The covering, and what holds it. 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. Three roofs in four in the village went on between 1945 and 1982, most of them in the seventies and early eighties, so most of what we go up to is concrete interlocking tile of one generation, with plain clay tile and natural slate on the older property near the church and the river. There is no stone slate on this side of the county. On interlocking concrete the tile outlasts what holds it down, so nine times in ten the fault is a nail, a clip, a batten end or a junction rather than the covering itself.

Ridge, hip and verge. The single most common job in the village, and it comes round for everybody at once because the roofs are all of an age. Mortar bedding shrinks and cracks, the wind gets under the tile and it starts to rock, and a verge loses its bedding along a gable. The most exposed elevation here faces south west, and wind works at the edges and the openings rather than the middle of a surface, which is why the edge goes first. We take 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 also ventilates the roof space along the ridge. It is priced by the metre of edge, so it costs a fraction of a re-cover.

Nearly half the houses here are terraced, and where houses are joined the covering carries on over the boundary and so does the water. A leak that shows in your back bedroom often gets in above next door's, and the repair has to be done from a scaffold that stands over both. We knock on the door, agree it and photograph both sides so nobody argues later about who paid for what. On a joined roof the valley between two pitches and the abutment against a rear extension are where the leadwork hours go, and where the cheap fix always fails first. Flashings, soakers, valleys and abutments go in code rated lead, cut so it can move without splitting.

When the nails have rusted through, the batten ends have softened and the old felt tears as soon as it is touched, a new roof is the honest answer. The covering comes off, soft rafter feet and wet timber are replaced, and it goes back on breathable membrane and treated battens with a matched tile. Roofs of this age have no sarking board, so the underlay is the whole of the second defence. The rear extension, the garage and the porch go in felt, GRP fibreglass or EPDM rubber, and on this stock the flat roof usually runs into the main slope, which is the junction where they let go. On a terrace one blocked downpipe backs the whole run up. While the covering is off, insulation and eaves ventilation cost far less to put right, and Approved Document L sets the standard a renovated roof is expected to reach.

No rate per square metre. Sopley is straightforward for the most part, but joined houses are not, and with nearly half the village terraced that comes up often. A scaffold for a mid-terrace roof has to stand across a neighbour and often comes in through a side gate by hand, which costs more than the same platform on a detached house. This is work at height, and work at height rules are why the platform is a priced line. Ask any quote whether the scaffold is in it and who pays for the skip.

Three quarters of the housing in Sopley went up between the war and the early eighties, most of it in the seventies. That one fact changes the advice more than anything else on this page, because roofs that went on together wear out together.

What ages first on a roof of that generation is not the tile. It is the mortar along the ridges, hips and verges, and the nails and battens beneath. So when one house in a road starts shedding mortar, the rest are a season or two behind, and the right answer for most of them is edge work rather than the re-cover a passing trader will quote for.

So if a neighbour has just had ridge and verge done, have yours looked at now rather than after the next gale. And if somebody quotes a new roof, ask them to show you the batten ends and the nail heads, because those are what decide it.

Under six miles from us, covering Sopley, Sopley Common, Ripley and the BH23 addresses between Bransgore and the Avon. 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.