Roofing in Verwood

Verge caps and dry verge units. On the BH31 estates the verges are the weak point. Where the original mortar verge survives, its bedding cracks and drops away in sections, and where a plastic dry verge has since gone on, years of ultraviolet leave it chalky so it snaps at the clip in a proper gale. Replacing one unit on a run of tired ones is a wasted trip, so we price the whole verge, both gables, in one visit.

Ridge and hip. With 44.4% of the housing here single storey, the typical Verwood roof is a hipped bungalow carrying an enormous run of edge for its floor area. Every metre of it is mortar bedding sat out in the weather, and once it hollows the tiles rock and water tracks behind. We take it off and convert to a dry fix system screwed onto a ventilated roll, the mechanical fixing BS 5534 expects, which ventilates the roof space along the ridge as it goes on.

Nearly everything on these estates is concrete tile, most of it interlocking, and the tile is usually sounder than the nails and clips holding it. The older cottages towards the village centre carry plain tile, clay tile and natural slate. An 1980s bungalow sits on light trussed rafters, so nothing in that loft can be cut or notched and a new rooflight needs the opening trimmed rather than a truss sawn through. Under the tiles sit battens, bitumen felt and no sarking board, and the felt perishes first at the eaves where it laps into the gutter. That is what decides a re-cover, and when it tears the covering comes off, wet timber is replaced and it goes back on breathable membrane and treated battens. If it is one rocking hip, a crept tile or a drip you want traced, that is on our page for roof repairs in Verwood, with the whole roof left as it is.

The 1980s garage roofs pond because the falls were never enough to start with, so on anything flat the deck and the falls come before the choice of felt, fibreglass or rubber. Bungalows of this age often have no stack at all, so most of the lead on them goes where a conservatory, porch or extension meets the main wall, and a mortar fillet in that position always fails. Low eaves are the one thing a bungalow gives you for free, and the heath and pine on the edge of the town fill the gutters with needles. Approved Document L sets the standard a renovated roof is expected to reach and Approved Document F covers the ventilation that has to go with it, both of them cheapest to deal with while the covering is off.

A rate per square metre would mislead you here more than most places. The honest drivers are these. More roof per room. A bungalow puts its whole floor area beneath a single roof, so a single storey home often carries more tiles, more ridge and hip and more verge than a two storey house of the same size. Those edges are slow work.

An easier platform. A single storey eaves line is low, most homes in Verwood have a drive for the scaffold and the skip, and a lot of edge work comes off a tower. That helps. It is still work at height, and the work at height rules are why the platform is a priced line and not an afterthought.

What the tiles sit on. Many Verwood roofs date from the eighties, with concrete tiles on battens over felt. By now the felt can be brittle at the eaves and the battens tired, and whether those are renewed decides how long the new covering lasts. BS 5534 sets how it all has to be fixed.

Chalet dormers and extensions. A dormer, a lean-to or a flat roofed garage alongside adds junctions, lead and flashing work.

Ask anyone else quoting whether the battens and membrane are renewed or kept, what grade of lead goes on, and who pays for the skip.

Getting on for half the homes in Verwood are bungalows, and that changes the sums more than anything else on this page. Every ceiling in the house is a ceiling under the roof, so heat leaves through all of it, and the roof itself is roughly double the area of a two storey house with the same rooms in it.

Edge work matters a great deal here, because so much of that roof is ridge, hip and verge rather than open slope. And the loft repays better than any other part of the job, so we would rather sort insulation, vent trays at the eaves and any condensation while the covering is off. If you are boarding for storage, the boards want a raised frame that does not squash the insulation, landing where the trusses will take it.

Our base is 80a Wolverton Road, Boscombe, about ten miles from Verwood. From there we cover the town, Three Legged Cross, Edmondsham and BH31 out towards Cranborne, and Dorset Council handles planning and building control.

You can check us at Companies House: Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. The owner is Thomas Hannen, and he is the one who comes to see the roof and writes up the price. Checkatrade carries a 10 out of 10 from a verified customer of ours. There is no charge for the visit, and the written quote with its itemised lines is free. Before you book a visit in Verwood, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Verwood 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.