Roofing in Walhampton and Portmore

Slate repairs and nail sickness. The fault to look for on the older houses, the Victorian cottages and estate houses of Walhampton and Portmore above all. Natural slate outlives its fixings by decades, so when slates start sliding out one at a time in no particular pattern the slate is fine and the nails have rusted through.

A few can be hooked back with tingles. A slope shedding them all over needs the whole covering stripping and re-hanging on new battens with non-ferrous nails. We say which of the two you have rather than sell you the bigger one. Plenty of the pre-war roofs are plain tile or handmade clay on riven battens, sometimes with the original lime torching still under them, and a matched second hand tile looks right where a modern one never will. Stone slate belongs to other parts of the country. Thatch adjoins some properties in Walhampton and Portmore, so we work up to that junction and no further.

Leadwork, valleys and parapet gutters. Older houses in Walhampton and Portmore carry far more lead than a modern roof does: chimney flashings and soakers, secret valleys, parapet and box gutters behind stone or brick copings, and abutments where wings meet at different heights. Lead fails when it is laid in lengths too long to move, so it splits along a fold, and we replace in properly sized bays of code rated lead. Mastic and flashband over a split are a winter's grace at best, and they hide the fold that has failed.

Mortar bedding on a ridge in this exposure cracks and lets the wind under. Where the building is not sensitive we convert to a mechanically fixed dry ridge and dry verge on a ventilated roll, the fixing BS 5534 expects. Inside the Forest South East conservation area, where appearance is controlled, ridges are re-bedded in a lime rich mortar and mechanically fixed underneath, which looks original and still holds. Many of these roofs were never felted at all, which is normal for their age. If we strip, the covering goes back on breathable membrane and treated battens with the eaves ventilation designed in, because sealing an old roof tight without a path for the air is how you get condensation and rot in timber that has been dry for a century. Rafter feet and wall plates get checked while the covering is off.

The flat roof work here takes in blocks as well as houses: communal decks, balconies, dormer tops, garages and rear extensions in felt, GRP fibreglass or EPDM rubber, with the deck opened up and looked at before anyone quotes a covering. On a tall old house a leak means starting in the loft, because water can run several metres along a rafter before it drips. Cast iron rainwater goods survive here and are worth keeping, joints re-made and the run re-aligned rather than swapped for plastic, and where a block shares one system we clear the whole run instead of one flat's share. With the covering off, insulation and eaves ventilation are much cheaper to sort, and Approved Document L sets the standard a renovated roof is expected to reach.

A rate per square metre would mislead you here, because the area of a roof says little about the work in it.

How old the house is. Plenty of homes in Walhampton and Portmore went up before the First World War. Those roofs tend to be slate or handmade clay on timber laths, with nothing beneath them but the loft, and rafters that have spread over the years. Taking one off means new battens and membrane across the whole slope, and sometimes timber repairs. Post-war houses here more often have concrete tiles over sarking felt that has rotted along the eaves.

Flats and freeholds. Where the home is a flat, the roof of the block belongs to the freeholder, and beyond a set cost per flat the landlord has to consult leaseholders under section 20 first. That adds weeks rather than money to the roof itself, but it decides who we are pricing for.

Putting up the platform. Long drives, lanes too tight for a lorry, tall three storey fronts and trees over the ridge all mean more scaffold and a longer build. Under the work at height rules the platform is part of doing the job safely, so it gets a line of its own.

Stacks and leadwork. Large chimneys on the older houses need stepped flashings, a back gutter and soakers dressed properly, which takes a good deal longer than smearing on sealant.

Anyone else pricing it should tell you whether the scaffold is included, whether the battens and membrane are being renewed or kept, and which code of lead goes round the chimney.

If your home in Walhampton and Portmore is a flat or maisonette, then in almost every case the structure and the outside of the building, roof included, stay with the freeholder and are maintained out of the service charge. The person who can see the stain is often not the person who can order the repair.

What to do is simple enough. Ring your managing agent or freeholder, ask them to instruct a survey, and send us the address. We will quote to an agent, a residents' company or a leaseholder gathering prices for a meeting, itemised so it can go in front of everybody. Where the work is large enough to trigger consultation under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, the freeholder has to consult leaseholders first, and an itemised written quote is what that process needs.

Walhampton and Portmore sit on the east side of the Lymington River, with Boldre, Pilley and South Baddesley behind them, and our base in Boscombe is 13.7 miles away. For planning, the New Forest National Park Authority decides.

The business is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, company number 15471719, registered in England and Wales. It belongs to Thomas Hannen, and he is the person who climbs up to your roof and writes the price. On Checkatrade a verified customer has given the work 10 out of 10. We make no charge for the site visit or for the written quote, itemised in full. Before you book a visit in Walhampton and Portmore, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Walhampton and Portmore 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.