Roofing in West Moors

Ridge, hip and verge. The commonest job here by a distance. Mortar bedding of this age cracks, washes out and lets wind under the edge of the covering. We convert it to a dry fixed system screwed onto a ventilated roll, the mechanical fixing BS 5534 expects, which ventilates the roof space along the ridge at the same time. It is priced by the metre of edge, and at 50.9% bungalows this is a village of long edges.

Slipped, cracked and missing tiles, storm damage, and leaks traced back to where water genuinely enters rather than patched where the stain shows. Most of the housing carries concrete interlocking tile, with plain clay tile and natural slate on the older properties, and the fault is usually a fixing or a junction rather than the covering. Bitumen felt of this vintage goes brittle and tears where it laps into the gutter, which is the one place it has to be sound, and that is the usual cause of a wet fascia. Under it sit the battens and the rafter feet, and those are what we check from inside.

When nails, battens and membrane have gone together the covering comes off, soft timber is replaced, and it goes back on breathable membrane and treated battens with a matched tile. On a bungalow that is a lot of roof, which is exactly why we would rather sell you the edge work if the edge work will do. Garages, rear additions and porch roofs go in felt, GRP fibreglass or EPDM rubber, deck first then the falls, upstands and outlet, and chimney flashings, soakers, valleys and abutments in code rated lead.

Long gutter runs on a bungalow overshoot easily, and a second outlet often fixes permanently what clearing fixes for a season. Clearing moss and debris is ordinary maintenance and it heads off the rotted fascia below. The loft matters more here than anywhere: the roof covers the whole footprint, so it is the largest surface on the building and where most of the heat goes. Insulation, eaves ventilation and condensation are all cheaper to sort with the covering off, and Approved Document L sets the standard a renovated roof is expected to reach.

No rate per square metre. On a single storey house the variables are not the ones people expect. Perimeter rather than area: roofs fail at the edges, and a bungalow has far more ridge, hip and verge for the size of house. Access is in your favour, because low eaves mean a lot of work comes off a tower rather than a full scaffold. It is still work at height, and the work at height rules are why the platform is a priced line. Repair or re-cover is the biggest difference between two quotes, and on this stock that is settled in the loft rather than from the pavement.

Just over half the dwellings here are bungalows, the highest share anywhere we work. Put the same floor area on one storey and you roughly double the roof, and add a great deal more ridge, hip, verge and guttering per household. So a re-cover costs more per bedroom than on a two storey house, while the scaffold element is cheaper and the loft returns more than anywhere else on our patch.

The village is also flat and low on sand over river gravel. Most of it sits in the lowest flood zone, with the exposure along the Uddens Water at Riverside Road, Mannington Way and Shaftesbury Road. Roof water cannot go into a foul sewer, and on this ground a soakaway is not the automatic answer between November and March. Check your own address on the government flood risk service.