Roofing in Spetisbury

Slate roofs and nail sickness. On the older property here, one house in five of which predates 1919, the natural slate is frequently sound and the nails behind it have corroded away, which is why slates come off one at a time with no storm to blame. A few can be re-hung on hooks or tingles. Once it is happening every winter the honest answer is a strip and relay: the slates come down, get sorted, and go back on new treated battens over breathable membrane, sound ones on the elevation that shows. Older roofs here have no sarking board, so that underlay is the whole of the second line of defence.

Tiles, ridge and junctions. Newer houses off the main road, and half the village went up between 1945 and 1982, are almost all interlocking concrete tile, while the older brick and flint cottages carry plain clay tile, small units double lapped the way a plain tile roof always is. Interlocking concrete outlasts its own fixings, so what has failed is a nail, a clip or a junction. Once mortar bedding cracks, ridge tiles rock and a verge lets go along the gable. It either gets re-bedded to match or converts to a dry fix system screwed onto a ventilated roll, the mechanical fixing BS 5534 calls for.

There is thatch in the village and we do not work on it: we go up to the junction, form the lead, and the thatch goes to a thatcher. Flashings, soakers, valleys and abutments go in code rated lead, and on the older cottages the usual find is a cement fillet where a flashing should be, cracking again every winter until it is done properly. Trees along the valley fill a gutter faster than on an open estate, and clearing that debris costs less than the rotted fascia it heads off. With the roof open the loft is as cheap as it will ever be to put right, and eaves ventilation matters as much as the insulation, because a loft closed up without airflow turns condensation into the next problem, and Approved Document L sets the standard it has to meet.

No rate per square metre. The houses on the lanes behind the village are easy, with room for a scaffold or a tower and a lorry. The ones fronting the main road are not, and that is the single biggest swing in price here. How long the platform stands matters as much as its size, and work at height rules are why it 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.

The A350 runs straight through Spetisbury, and a good number of houses front it with no front garden to stand anything in. On those addresses the platform is not simply a bigger or smaller version of the same scaffold. It has to go up over a public footway, which means a licence from the highway authority, a pedestrian route kept open or diverted, lighting on the structure and a delivery timed so a lorry is not sitting on a bend.

None of that is a problem, but it is a cost and a lead time, and it is the thing most likely to be missing from a cheaper quote. So tell us when you ring whether your house fronts the road or sits back off it. It goes on the quote as its own line either way, and you will know before you commit rather than a week into the job.

About thirteen miles from us, covering Spetisbury, Charlton Marshall and the DT11 addresses along the Stour between Blandford and Wimborne. 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.