Roofing in Yarmouth

Ridge, hip and verge. The job that comes up most, and at 35.7% bungalows the reason is single storey roofs: a great deal of edge for the size of house, and every hip a run of mortar bedding that has been in salt air since the day it went on. Once it cracks the tiles rock. We strip the edge and convert to a dry fix system screwed onto a ventilated roll, the mechanical fixing BS 5534 expects, which vents the roof space along the ridge at the same time.

Fixings, battens and underlay. The section that matters most on this side of the water. At 2.9km from the coast a nail or a clip that has thinned in salt air lets a tile go in a wind that would not have moved it ten years ago, so on a re-fix or a re-cover we use stainless rather than galvanised on the exposed elevations. Behind the covering sit the battens, the rafter feet and the underlay, and on an old roof there is no sarking board and often no membrane at all. When the fixings have gone across a whole slope the covering comes off and goes back on breathable membrane and treated battens.

The old town, and 30.7% of the stock predates 1919, carries plain tile, clay tile and natural slate, much of it laid before anyone thought about underlay. The post-war streets and the bungalows carry concrete tile, most of it interlocking. There is thatch here and we decline it, so we say at the visit which part we can take on. Lead is one of the few materials salt air leaves alone, which is why flashings, soakers, valleys and abutments are worth doing in code rated sheet rather than sealing a junction with mastic and hoping.

On a flat roof the upstand at the abutment lets go before the field of the roof does on a plot this exposed, so the deck and the falls come first. Metal gutter brackets corrode faster here than anything else on the building, and a run that has dropped at one bracket overflows onto the fascia. Damp air that never quite dries keeps moss in the tile laps, and clearing it is done at low pressure, because a lance takes the face off an old tile. On a bungalow the loft is large relative to the house, so insulation and eaves ventilation are the best money on the job, 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. We are on the mainland, so an island job is planned around a crossing and the platform goes up for a booked run of days. The harbour streets are tight and some have no rear access, while the bungalows are low enough to work off a tower. 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 anyone else quoting whether the scaffold is in the price and who pays for the skip.

The one thing that genuinely changes a roof here is the air. Salt carries inland on the wind off the Solent, settles on everything, and keeps a surface damp in between showers instead of letting it dry. Tile, slate and lead do not much care. Steel does. Galvanised nails, tile clips, gutter brackets and the screws in a fixing system thin from the edges in, and they do it fastest on the elevation that faces the weather.

So the useful question to ask about a quote here is not what the covering is, it is what is holding it on. Stainless nails and clips on the exposed slopes cost very little more than galvanised at the time and are the difference between a roof that lasts its life and one you patch every year. It also means a roof here is worth a look after a hard winter even when nothing has moved, because the fixings go quietly.

We come over from the mainland for island work, covering Yarmouth, Norton, Freshwater and the PO41 addresses around the harbour, with Isle of Wight 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.