Roofing in West Lulworth

Stone slate. The old cottages here carry Purbeck stone laid in diminishing courses, heavy, hung on pegs, and worth far more than what would replace it. A slipped stone is usually a failed peg or a soft batten, so the repair is to lift, sort and re-hang, saving every stone that will take another century. Anyone offering to strip a stone slate roof and put concrete tile on it has not looked at the timbers underneath, which were sized for that weight and nothing else.

Fixings, this close to the water. At 0.7km from the coast salt corrodes metal from the edge inwards, so the nail goes long before the covering does. Slates sliding out one at a time in no pattern are nail sickness, not a finished roof: a few come back with tingles, a slope shedding them wants re-hanging on new battens with non-ferrous nails. Most of these roofs never had underlay and there is no sarking board either, so if we strip it goes back on breathable membrane and treated battens with copper or stainless fixings and clipped perimeter courses.

Wind here works at the edges rather than the middle of a slope, so mortar bedding on the ridge and the verge fails first. Away from the old core it is clay tile and interlocking concrete, and a plain tile roof fails through its fixings like anywhere else. 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. On a listed cottage or a prominent frontage in the West Lulworth Conservation Area we re-bed in a lime rich mortar with the fixing hidden underneath, so it holds without changing the look. Lead is right for flashings, valleys and abutments this close to the water, because it does not corrode the way steel and flashing tape do.

There is thatch in this village and it is a separate trade, so we work up to the junction, get the lead right and leave the rest to somebody who does it properly. On a flat roof in felt or rubber the deck, the edge trim and the perimeter fixings matter as much as the membrane, because wind gets under a loose edge and peels the lot. On a rubble stone wall the water often arrives through the wall head rather than the covering, and it is worth knowing which. Rainwater goods corrode from the fixings inwards and the brackets go before the gutter does, so a downpipe pulls away and water tracks down the fascia and soffit. Clearing debris out of the gutters and algae off a shaded slope is annual work. Insulation and eaves ventilation matter more in a house that sits unheated for weeks at a time, because that is when condensation does its damage, 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 is the difficult part in this village. Narrow lanes, no room to turn a lorry and very little parking in season mean scaffold deliveries have to be timed, and sometimes handled further from the house than anyone would like. 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.

Under a mile from the sea, everything metal on a roof has a shorter life than the same thing inland. Salt settles on the surface, holds moisture against it between showers and corrodes steel from the exposed edge inwards. So the slate is sound and the nail has gone. The tile is fine and the clip has rusted off. The gutter is serviceable and the bracket has failed. That is why we look at the fixings first, and why a roof can shed at the verge while the middle of the slope is perfect.

It changes what we specify. Copper or stainless nails rather than galvanised, non-ferrous clips, lead at the junctions instead of anything coated, and mechanical fixing to the perimeter courses on the exposed elevation. It is a small part of the cost of a roof and it decides whether you are back up there in ten years or thirty. If you are collecting quotes, ask what the fixings are made of.

About seventeen miles from us, covering West Lulworth, Lulworth Cove, East Lulworth and the BH20 addresses across West Purbeck, 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.