Roofing in Winterborne Kingston
Repairs, dry fixed ridge and verge, re-covering, leadwork and rainwater goods along the North Winterborne valley and the DT11 lanes around it.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Once the water is off your roof in Winterborne Kingston, the question is where the ground takes it. That is the part that catches people out here, not the covering. There is no conservation area over the village, so a like for like re-cover needs no application and the tile is your choice.
The village sits low in the valley of the North Winterborne, strung along the lane with the fields coming right up to the back gardens. Two calls come out of it more than any others. A ridge or verge has started dropping mortar after a westerly, or a ceiling has stained and nobody can say whether it came from the roof, the gutter or the wall.
We come out, get on the roof, put our head into the loft and photograph what is there. You get a straight answer on repair against re-cover and an itemised written quote either way. The site visit and the quote are both free.
The work
On a low plot by the stream, the gutter matters
Ridge, hip and verge. The job we book most often here. There is no shelter on the weather side of this village, and wind does not lift a roof out of the middle, it picks at the perimeter: bedding mortar splits, the haunching under a verge crumbles away, and the ridge tiles start to move under your hand. The remedy is to take the mortar off altogether and rebuild the run dry, ridge and verge screwed down over a vented roll, the fixed rather than bedded method BS 5534 calls for.
Concrete tile, most of it interlocking, on the post-war houses and the bungalows off the lane; plain clay tile and natural slate on the older cottages and the farm buildings, battens straight over the underlay with no sarking board behind. Thatch on a handful of roofs, and we do not thatch: we take the junction, the leadwork and the rainwater goods beside it. A tile outlives several sets of whatever holds it down, so a slipped one is almost always a corroded nail, a broken clip or a junction. Once the batten ends give under a thumb the slope comes down to the rafters and is rebuilt on breathable membrane over treated battens.
Gutters carry more weight here than in most villages, and the reason is under your feet rather than over your head: a gutter spilling at a joint, or a downpipe emptying straight onto the ground, is an irritation on a hillside and a real problem on a low plot beside the North Winterbourne. A cement fillet round a stack is the leak we are called to more than any other, and it gets replaced in code rated lead. With the slope open, insulation and ventilation at the eaves are far cheaper, and Approved Document L sets out the standard a renovated roof is held to.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Same team throughout, one person to ring, and an itemised quote: scaffold, strip out, battens and membrane, the covering and each junction on separate lines. On permission this is one of the straightforward ones. No conservation area over the village and seven listed entries in the parish so a like for like re-cover, a repair, new rainwater goods and rooflights all run under ordinary householder permitted development: no planning permission, no application and no building control sign-off, provided nothing you add stands proud of the roof plane by more than 150mm. Planning Portal guidance spells out where those limits sit. We still put the address through the list first, since the listed ones here are scattered rather than grouped. Dorset Council.
Cost
What decides the price of a roof
No rate per square metre: on a roof that is the least useful number there is. Access is mostly in your favour here, with room off the lane for a lorry and hard standing for a scaffold or a tower on most plots, though a few of the older cottages sit gable on to the road with nothing behind them. 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.
If it is leaking now
Water coming in today
Ring rather than use the form. Anything letting water in goes to the front of the queue, and the first visit makes it safe and watertight while you decide. If it has just rained hard, check whether the gully at the foot of the downpipe is backing up: that tells us whether we are chasing a roof or a drain. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Where the roof water goes once it lands
The village sits on the North Winterborne, which behaves like the chalk stream it is: dry or nearly dry through the summer, then running hard from midwinter. Parts of the village are inside the flood zones and the surface water mapping is high here, which you can check for your own address on the government flood risk service. None of that changes how a roof is tiled. It changes what happens at the bottom of the downpipe.
So when we quote rainwater goods here we price the outfall, not just the gutter. A downpipe running to a gully that is blocked, or discharging onto the ground beside the wall, puts the whole of your roof into the few square metres nearest your foundations at exactly the time of year the ground is already full. Approved Document H sets out what a rainwater outlet is supposed to connect to.
Ask whoever quotes you where each downpipe actually goes. On a low plot it is a better question than what the guttering is made of.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
About fourteen and a half miles from us, covering Winterborne Kingston and the DT11 addresses out towards Bere Regis and Milborne St Andrew, 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.
Questions
Winterborne Kingston questions we get asked
Does the North Winterbourne affect work at the house?
It affects where things stand rather than the roof itself. The North Winterbourne runs about seventy metres from the village, and the ground sits in flood zones 2 and 3 with a high surface water rating on top, so ponding after heavy rain is normal here. Skips, tile stacks and the scaffold base all go on ground that will still be firm in a downpour, and downpipes are set to run clear of the walls.
There is no conservation area here. Am I free to choose?
For the covering, largely. Winterborne Kingston has no conservation area of its own and only seven listed entries, the Church of St Nicholas among them, so unless your house is one of those the choice of tile or slate is a practical decision rather than a planning one. What still applies is the structure: rafters and wall plate were sized for a particular weight, and that sets the sensible options.
The chimney takes the worst of it. Can it be repointed?
Usually, and it is worth doing before the flashings are touched. A stack standing above the ridge on the south west face catches driven rain from every side, loses its pointing first, and then the flaunching around the pots cracks and lets water down the flue. Repointing, new flaunching and fresh lead soakers with a back gutter is a contained piece of work that does not need the whole roof disturbing.
Is a dry ridge worth it on an exposed roof?
On a roof catching the weather from the south west it generally is. Mortar bedding is a rigid joint on a structure that moves and dries out, and once it cracks the wind gets underneath a ridge end and works along the run. A dry ridge is fixed mechanically to a batten and ventilates at the same time. Whether it can be fitted depends on the tile profile, so that is checked before it is offered.
Do you tip the old tiles or take them away?
Everything goes out with us. Winterborne Kingston is around fourteen miles from our base, so old tiles, felt and battens go into a skip or straight onto the lorry and leave with it rather than standing in the garden for a fortnight. The ground gets swept for nails before we go. Sound tiles worth keeping are stacked to one side first if you want them for an outbuilding, and disposal shows on the written quote as its own line.
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Get a straight answer on your roof in Winterborne Kingston
A free site visit, a look in the loft, and a written itemised quote you can compare line by line.