Roofing in Woodlands

Underlay at the eaves. Start here, because on a roof of this era it is usually the answer. Nearly half the housing went up between the war and the early eighties, and the bitumen felt under those tiles has spent sixty years going brittle. It fails first where it laps into the gutter, the one place it has to be sound. Water then runs behind the fascia and the first thing you see is a wet soffit or a stain at the top of a wall. It is diagnosed from inside the loft in ten minutes, and it is not always a re-cover: an eaves repair with a proper support tray buys years.

Ridge, hip and verge. The other job this age of roof produces. Mortar bedded when the house was built has had six decades of frost, and the hipped roofs here carry a great deal of edge for their size. We take the bedding off and convert to a dry fix system, dry ridge and dry verge screwed onto a ventilated roll, the mechanical fixing BS 5534 expects, which also vents the roof space along the ridge and helps the condensation problem at the same time.

Slipped, cracked and missing tile work, storm damage after a gale off the open forest, and a leak traced back to where water genuinely enters rather than patched where the stain shows. Almost everything here is concrete tile, most of it interlocking, laid when the houses went up, with plain clay tile and natural slate on the older properties along the lanes. No stone slate on this side of the county, and where a thatched roof adjoins we take the tiled slope, the leadwork and the rainwater goods and leave the straw to a thatcher. When nails, batten ends and underlay have gone together the covering comes off, soft rafter feet are replaced, and it goes back on breathable membrane and treated battens with a matched tile. Nothing of this era has a sarking board, so the membrane is the second line of defence and not a place to save money.

The attached garage, the flat-roofed rear extension and the porch are a common set on a house of this age, in felt, GRP fibreglass or EPDM rubber, with the deck looked at first. Where a flat roof runs into the main tiled slope rather than up a wall, that junction is where they go. Chimney flashings, soakers, valleys and the abutments where an extension meets the original roof go in code rated lead cut so it can move without splitting, and a mortar fillet at a chimney gets replaced rather than re-pointed. Mature oak and pine overhang a lot of these roofs, so leaf litter and needles wash off the slope and pack the run and the downpipe below, and clearing that debris heads off the rotted fascia and soffit below. With the roof open, insulation and eaves ventilation cost a fraction to sort, and Approved Document L sets the standard a renovated roof is expected to reach. On a bungalow or a wide detached house, and a third of the village is bungalows, it is the best money on the job.

No rate per square metre: on a roof that is the least useful number there is. Plots here are generous, with room off the drive for a lorry and somewhere solid for a scaffold, but mature trees over the roof often decide which side the platform goes and whether a branch has to be tied back first. 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.

This catches people out, and it catches quoting builders out more often. Woodlands sits inside the New Forest National Park, so planning is decided by the National Park Authority rather than the district council your bins come from. Neighbours a couple of miles towards Totton apply to a different body than you do, and the answers are not always the same.

For a roof it matters in one place only. Repairs and like for like re-covering are unaffected and need nobody's permission. Anything that changes the look of the roof, or stands proud of it, is looked at more closely inside the Park than outside, and closer again in the conservation area. So if a re-cover is also the moment you want rooflights, solar panels or a dormer, ask that before the scaffold is booked. A refusal with the covering off is an expensive way to find out.

About twenty miles from us, covering Woodlands, Netley Marsh and the SO40 addresses out towards Ashurst and Totton, with the New Forest National Park Authority for planning and New Forest District Council for 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.