Roofing in Walhampton and Portmore

Slate repairs and nail sickness. The commonest job on the older houses, and 26.9% of the stock here predates 1919. 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 of these properties, so we work up to that junction and no further.

Leadwork, valleys and parapet gutters. Older houses here 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 we take a great deal of both off roofs around here.

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.

Flats and maisonettes are 31.5% of the dwellings here and they bring most of the flat roof work: 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.

No rate per square metre: on a roof that is the least useful number there is. Access here is the awkward part. Long gravel drives, narrow lanes with no width for a lorry, tall three storey elevations and mature trees over the roof all mean a bigger platform and longer to put it up. It is work at height, and the work at height rules are why the platform is a priced line rather than an optional extra. Ask anyone else quoting whether the scaffold is in the price, whether battens and membrane are renewed or covered over, and what grade of lead is going on the chimney.

Close to a third of the homes here are flats or maisonettes, high for a rural parish and mostly down to large houses that have been converted. 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.

About sixteen miles from us, covering Walhampton, Portmore, Boldre, Pilley and the SO41 addresses east of Lymington, with the New Forest National Park Authority as the planning authority for this parish. 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.