Roofing in Spetisbury

Slate roofs and nail sickness. On the older property here, much of it built before the First World War, 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 in Spetisbury have no sarking board, so that underlay is the whole of the second line of defence.

Tiles, ridge and junctions. Newer houses off the Spetisbury main road, most of them post-war, 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 Spetisbury 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.

A sixties or seventies roof has no rate per square metre. Thomas prices what he sees on the roof and in the loft, and on Spetisbury houses the setting, the timber under the tiles, the covering and the joins decide it.

Where the house sits. Semis and terraces on the closes off the main road are straightforward, with room for a scaffold and a skip. A cottage on the A350 needs a footway licence, protection for people walking underneath and sometimes a gantry, and that can be the biggest single swing in the price. The work at height rules are why access is always a line of its own.

What is under the tiles. On roofs from this era the felt has often perished and the battens are soft at the tails. Laying tiles back on them saves money for a few winters. Renewing the battens and laying a breathable membrane costs more and is the job that lasts.

Concrete or clay. Heavy concrete interlocking tiles are common here, and some owners want to go lighter or back to clay. A change of weight or profile means the rafters get checked first, and it can change what building control asks for.

Chimneys and joins. A stack shared between a pair of semis, a lead abutment against the neighbour's roof or a small bay roof each add hours. On a terrace the tiling has to finish cleanly at the party line.

When you compare quotes, ask whether the battens and membrane are being renewed or reused, what weight of lead is going round the chimney, and whether the footway licence and scaffold are included.

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.

Spetisbury sits on the A350 between Blandford and Wimborne, 14.2 miles from our base in Boscombe, and we cover it with Charlton Marshall and the other DT11 villages on the Stour. Dorset Council handles planning and building control.

The firm is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. It is Thomas Hannen's business, and Thomas is the one who climbs up, looks at your roof and writes the price. You can read a verified customer's 10 out of 10 for us on Checkatrade. The site visit is free, and so is the written quote, with every item on its own line. Before you book a visit in Spetisbury, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Spetisbury 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.