Roofers in Downend

The terraced Victorian streets in Downend were built in runs, with roofs continuous from one party wall to the next. For the owner of a single house the effect is that nearly every junction on the roof is shared. The ridge crosses the boundary, the verge at the end belongs to the last house and the gutter at the back carries water from both sides.

That sharing is the main thing to plan for. Before any scaffold goes up, it is sensible to speak to the neighbours, because a scaffold on the front or back of one house often touches the next, and a change in covering looks odd in a row of identical roofs. We bring this up at survey so it does not come as a surprise.

The faults we meet most on this kind of roof sit in the details. Slipped slates or tiles near the eaves, a ridge that has dropped or cracked, and valleys or abutments where an extension meets the main roof are the usual sources. A rear outrigger, the narrower wing many Victorian terraces have at the back, makes a valley with the main roof, and the lead in that valley is a frequent culprit when a back bedroom ceiling stains.

Where a terrace has seen several repairs over the years, the roof can be a patchwork: a few replacement tiles that do not match, felt strips pushed under the courses, sealant in the valley. We sort the sound work from the stopgaps and tell you which is which. A single-house repair on a terrace is usually a repair; a full re-covering on a house that has already been patched all over can be the better answer, and the photographs in the report show why.

Leaks and slipped covering are dealt with under roof repairs. If a whole roof is spent, roof replacement covers what the job involves, with the Building Regulations question for larger re-roofs.

On the older Downend houses the chimney stack is often the most exposed piece of masonry. It rises through the roof, stands in the open on every face and is held in place by a handful of joints. On a terrace the stack usually straddles the party wall, with flues from two houses side by side.

There are four things to look at. The pots and their flaunching (the mortar bed that holds them and throws water off the top) can crack. The pointing on the brickwork wears back. The lead flashing and tray where the stack enters the roof lift, and the lead soakers beneath the slates or tiles can rot unseen. Damp on the chimney breast indoors is the warning sign, and the cure begins at the top. Where a flue is no longer used, capping and ventilating it is a part of the same job.

The cost range depends on the stack and the scaffold. MyBuilder's cost guide gives national figures of £500 to £2,000 for chimney repairs, £250 to £1,200 for flashing repair and £2,000 up to £10,000 and beyond for a rebuild, which shows how far a quick patch differs from rebuilding. Those are typical UK ranges, not Empire prices, and ours follows the survey.

Gutters are the other half. A 1950s house typically has fascia boards, soffits and gutters of its own age, and timber boards that have been painted over for a long time can rot behind the paint. Gutters sag at the fixings, joints weep, and an overflow runs down the wall and soaks the brick. We check the fall to the outlet, the joints and the fixings, as well as the boards that carry them.

You can read about the stack work on chimney repairs, and the guttering side is covered by gutters, soffits and fascias. A scaffold can be shared between the two, which saves repeating the cost.