Roofing in West Parley

Underlay that has run out of life. The interlocking concrete tile roofs of the late 1960s and early 1970s were laid on bitumen felt, and felt is a consumable. It goes hard, splits along the batten line and tears where it drapes into the gutter, so wind-driven rain that gets past the tile has nothing to stop it.

That is a strip and re-cover onto breathable membrane and treated battens rather than a patch, because you cannot replace an underlay from underneath. We say so plainly when that is what we find, and equally plainly when it is not. If it turns out to be one slipped tile, a loose hip or a single leak at a flashing, that belongs on our page for roof repairs in West Parley.

Storm damage on open plots. A third of West Parley is detached and much of it sits with nothing upwind, so gusts get under the verge and lift from the edge inwards: missing and cracked tiles, a verge that has started to walk, ridge tiles off after a gale. BS 5534 sets out how a covering should be mechanically fixed for its exposure, and an open plot here is a more demanding site than a sheltered terrace. Mortar bedding of that age cracks and washes out, and we replace it with a dry ridge screwed to a ventilated roll and dry verge units at the gables, which takes the mortar out of the equation.

The bungalows and chalets here were extended repeatedly, and every addition brought another valley, another abutment and another change of pitch. Those junctions are where the leaks are: valleys relined, roof-to-wall abutments and chimney flashings re-formed in code rated lead, and any junction where two roofs of different pitch meet checked properly rather than sealed over. Garages, porches, dormers and the flat-roofed rear additions that came with all that extending go in felt, GRP fibreglass or EPDM rubber, and a soft deck needs replacing rather than covering.

On a bungalow the roof area per household is roughly double that of a two-storey house, so the same length of gutter is handling far more water. Undersized or blocked, it goes over the edge in the heaviest ten minutes of a storm, which is exactly when the ground here can least take it, so clearing debris, correcting falls and renewing split gutters and downpipes is not tidying. More than a third of West Parley is bungalows, the lofts are large and easy to reach, and insulating them properly is worth doing while the covering is off. Ventilation and condensation are dealt with at the same time, and Approved Document L sets what a renovated roof is expected to reach.

Thomas prices a roof from what is on it, not from a rate per square metre. These are the things that move a quote here.

The shape. A hipped bungalow has more hip and ridge per room than a two storey house, and every length is bedded or dry fixed by hand. A chalet bungalow with dormers front and back adds lead flashings, dormer cheeks and valleys. A detached house from the nineties is simpler per metre of roof but needs a taller scaffold.

The age of the batch. Most roofs in the parish went on within a few years of each other. Plenty are concrete interlocking tiles over felt that has gone brittle at the eaves. Sometimes the edges, the ridge mortar and the verges, are the whole job and the field of tiles has years left. Sometimes the felt and battens underneath have had it and a re-cover is the honest answer. BS 5534 sets how battens, underlay and fixings go back on.

The platform. Scaffold is a priced line because of the rules on roof work at height. A single storey platform goes up faster than a two storey one, while a conservatory, a garage or an extension built against the roof slows everything down.

Holding another quote? Ask whether the scaffold is included, whether the battens and membrane are renewed or the new tiles go over the old felt, and whether the ridge and hips are re-bedded or changed to a dry fix system.

West Parley is not in a river flood zone. What it does have is a high surface water rating, which is a different thing and a more local one: it means that in heavy rain the ground and the drains here struggle to take water away fast enough, and it ponds and runs across the surface instead.

The Stour is about eight hundred metres off, but this is not really about the river. You can check any individual address on the government surface water and flood risk service.

That makes the rainwater side of a roof worth more attention here than the tiles get credit for. Everything that lands on the roof arrives at the gutter within minutes, and a gutter that overflows, a downpipe that has split at the back where nobody looks, or a shoe discharging onto a path that already has standing water on it, all put that volume exactly where it is least wanted.

On a bungalow, catching double the roof area through the same run of guttering, the margin is thinner than it looks. So when we quote a roof here we look at the whole path the water takes, from the tile to wherever it finally leaves the property, not just the part of it that is on the roof.

West Parley is about 4.5 miles from our base in Boscombe. We cover the whole parish, Parley Cross, Dudsbury and the bungalow roads between them, and on out to Longham and Ferndown. Planning and building control here sit with Dorset Council.

The company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. It is Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the one who climbs up, looks at your roof and prices it. A verified customer has given us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The site visit costs nothing, and nor does the written quote with every item listed. Before you book a visit in West Parley, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in West Parley 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.