Roofing in Wareham

Ridge and verge on the estate roofs. The commonest job in the town by a distance. Half the houses here went up between the war and the early eighties, and every one of those roofs has its ridge and gable verge bedded in sand and cement. The bedding cracks along the joint, water gets behind it, and it comes away in pieces while the tiles either side are sound. We strip it and convert to a dry fix system, dry ridge and dry verge screwed onto a ventilated roll, the mechanical fixing BS 5534 expects, which vents the roof space along the ridge at the same time.

Slate and plain tile in the old streets. A different failure. What finishes a pre-war slate roof is the nail rather than the slate: the heads corrode, slates creep down a course, and you get slips along one line instead of damage in a patch. Those roofs sit on battens with no sarking and often no underlay, so the repair means lifting the courses above rather than sliding something in from beneath. Plain clay tile goes the same way and the pegs give out first. Out towards Corfe you meet Purbeck stone slate, heavy and laid in diminishing courses, which wants the rafters looked at before anyone re-lays it. Thatch we leave alone, and look at the tiled range and the chimney beside it.

Concrete tile covers most of the town, nearly all of it interlocking and laid to a shallow pitch, which copes with everything until one tile lifts and the course below starts taking water sideways. Slipped, cracked and missing tile work, storm damage, a hip tile you can rock by hand, and a leak traced back to where water genuinely enters rather than patched where the stain shows. On the seventies roofs the tell is at the eaves, where the old bitumen underlay has torn where it laps into the gutter, the one place it has to be sound. When the fixings, battens and underlay have gone together the covering comes off, soft rafter feet are cut out, and it goes back on breathable membrane and treated battens with a matched tile and stainless nails and clips.

Chimney flashings, soakers, valleys and the abutments where an extension meets the original roof go in code rated lead cut so it can move without splitting, and on a terrace the stack usually sits on the party wall and is shared. Flat roofs over garages, back additions, dormers and the flats above the shops in felt, GRP fibreglass or EPDM rubber, deck first and then the falls, upstands and outlet. A good share of the leaks we attend are a gutter running over or a downpipe discharging into nothing, and in the older parts a parapet gutter can run behind three houses before it finds an outlet, so clearing the moss and debris out of it is what stops the next ceiling. With the roof open, insulation and eaves ventilation cost a fraction 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. In the old streets there is often nowhere to put a lorry and a platform may need to stand over a public footway, so we settle that on the free site visit rather than on the first morning. On the estates there is usually a drive and a side gate. 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 any other quote whether the scaffold is in and whether battens and membrane are renewed or covered over.

A little over ten miles from us, covering Wareham town and the walled centre, Northport, Stoborough and the BH20 addresses out towards Ridge and Sandford, with Dorset Council for planning and building control. 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.