Roofing in Winterborne Stickland

Chimney leadwork. The one that comes up most in the old part of the village. Flint and brick stacks here are tall, they stand well clear of a steep slope, and they take weather from every side. A mortar fillet where the stack meets the tiling will crack inside a few winters and it is the commonest leak we chase. It comes off and goes back as code rated lead: soakers up the sides, an apron at the front, a stepped flashing cut into the joint, sized so the lead can move instead of splitting.

Valleys and abutments. Cottages added to over two hundred years end up with valleys between one roof and the next, and abutments where a later range meets an earlier wall. Those junctions carry two slopes of water at once, so they wear first, and we line them in lead rather than dropping a plastic trough in. Plain clay tile and natural slate on the older houses, laid over the underlay with no sarking board behind; concrete tile, mostly interlocking, on the later ones. There is no stone slate in this valley, so if a quote offers to match one, ask what that means.

Thatched roofs are part of the character of the street and we do not touch them. What we do is everything the thatcher does not: the tiled slope next door, the leadwork at the junction, the chimney the thatch runs up to and the rainwater goods below. On the exposed slopes above the valley floor wind works the edges rather than the middle. Where the house is post-war we convert to a dry fix system screwed to a ventilated roll, the mechanical fixing BS 5534 expects. On a cottage in the Winterborne Stickland Conservation Area we re-bed and point in mortar instead, because a dry verge trim on that sort of roof is the wrong answer whatever the fixing schedule says.

Once the nails have rusted through and the underlay tears at a touch, the covering comes off, soft rafter feet are cut out and replaced, and it goes back on breathable membrane and treated battens with a matched covering. On a steep old pitch that means roof ladders and a proper scaffold rather than working off the tiles. Rear extensions, garages and porches in felt, GRP fibreglass or EPDM rubber, deck first. A surprising share of the leaks we attend begin in the gutters. While a covering is off, insulation and eaves ventilation are far cheaper, 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. Stickland is narrow lanes with cottages built hard up to them, so on a good few houses the scaffold has to be planned before the roof is, and the material comes in on smaller loads than it would on an open site. 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.

People here expect the conservation area to be a problem for repairs, and it is not. Putting back what is there, in the material that is there, is maintenance and nobody needs telling. The place it does bite is anything added to a roof slope.

Rooflights, sun tunnels, vents and solar panels are ordinarily permitted development on an unlisted house, but on designated land, which the conservation area is, that permission falls away on the slope facing the highway. On the front of your house it becomes a planning application. On the back, usually not.

The practical version: if you are re-covering and want more light in the loft, put the rooflights on the rear slope and the job stays simple. If it has to go on the front, allow for the application in your timetable rather than discovering it late. On a listed building none of that applies, because consent is needed regardless.

About seventeen and a half miles from us, covering Winterborne Stickland, Winterborne Houghton and Turnworth and the DT11 addresses towards Blandford, 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.