Roofing in Winfrith Newburgh

Knowing what is up there. One village, four coverings. Purbeck stone slate on the oldest houses, graded heavy at the eaves and small near the ridge. Plain clay tile and natural slate on the Victorian work. Concrete tile, most of it interlocking, on everything since the war.

They fail differently, so we say on site which you have and what is holding it down. On a Purbeck slope the slate outlives the oak peg carrying it, so what looks like a worn out covering is nearly always a spent fixing, and interlocking concrete tells the same story through a corroded clip. If you have one fault to chase, a slipped slate or a leak by the chimney, our page on roof repairs in Winfrith Newburgh covers it.

Ridge, hip and verge. A common repair in Winfrith Newburgh, because mortar bedding laid two generations back splits and rinses away long before anything troubles the middle of a slope, and a gale then leaves cracked and missing tiles along that edge, so most storm damage here starts at a ridge or a verge. On the post-war houses that means lifting the whole run and putting it back mechanically, a dry fix system with dry ridge and dry verge units screwed down over a vented roll, the fixed rather than bedded approach BS 5534 asks for. On a stone slate or clay roof inside the Winfrith Newburgh Conservation Area we bed and point by hand instead, because a moulded verge trim on a cottage of that sort would look imported.

Several roofs in Winfrith Newburgh are thatched and some run into tile at a junction. We do not thatch: we take the junction, the leadwork and the rainwater goods, worked to the thatcher's programme rather than across it. Leadwork otherwise means chimney flashings, soakers, valleys and abutments in code rated sheet sized to move without tearing, and houses of this age carry more stacks and more valleys than any modern estate.

Once the nails are rust and the underlay splits at a touch, patching is wasted money: the slope comes down to the rafters, decayed feet are cut back to sound wood, and it is rebuilt on breathable membrane over treated battens with the covering matched to what came off. Almost no roof in Winfrith Newburgh has a sarking board, which leaves the membrane as the only thing between a driven shower and your ceiling. Call us to a roof leak and there is a fair chance we go home having fixed a gutter, because the shaded slopes down the lanes shed moss and algae into the run below, and clearing that debris out of the gutters and downpipes saves the fascia and soffit behind them. With the slope open, insulation and eaves ventilation cost a fraction of a later visit, and Approved Document L sets out the standard a renovated roof is held to.

A roof in Winfrith Newburgh has no figure per square metre worth giving. These are what move the price on a roof out here.

Getting the scaffold in. Narrow lanes, soft verges and houses tight to the road make scaffold and skip placement slower than on an estate. Where there is no rear access, everything goes up the front. Under the work at height rules the platform is a line you can see, not something buried.

Wind and exposure. The most exposed side of the village faces south west, and driven rain works at the verges, ridges and valleys first. BS 5534, the code of practice for slating and tiling, sets the fixings and laps for that exposure, so a roof here can need more nails and clips than one in a sheltered town street.

The covering itself. Reusing sound old clay tile or slate saves material. Matching an old handmade tile or a natural slate costs more than a new concrete tile, and a listed roof may need an exact match.

Underneath. Rotten battens, wet rafter feet, a stack with failed flaunching or lead flashings past their life only show once the covering is off. The quote says what happens if we find them.

Travel. We are 19.8 miles away, and the travel sits on the quote where you can see it.

Check what any other quote leaves out. Is the scaffold in? Are the battens and membrane being renewed? What lead goes round the chimney?

The designation over the older part of Winfrith Newburgh is narrower than people fear and stricter than they hope. Putting back what is already there is maintenance and can be done next week without telling anyone. Swapping stone slate for concrete tile, or clay plain tile for interlocking, changes the look of the street, and that is what it controls.

In practice, get your address checked before you accept anybody's quote, because a price built on the cheap covering for a house that cannot have it is a surprise waiting for you halfway through. And keep the old slates: when a slope is stripped, the sound ones coming off it are the closest match you will find for the ones that are not.

Our base is on Wolverton Road in Boscombe, 19.8 miles east of Winfrith Newburgh. We cover the village, East Knighton and the DT2 addresses out towards Wool and Owermoigne, and Dorset Council is the authority for planning and building control.

The company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, and the man who drives out to see the roof and prices it is its owner, Thomas Hannen. We have a verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote, itemised line by line, are free. Before you book a visit in Winfrith Newburgh, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Winfrith Newburgh 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.