Roofers in Frome

The Trinity area is the clearest evidence of how the town worked in the 17th and 18th centuries. More than 300 houses were built between 1660 and 1756, set out in a grid of streets rather than the winding lanes of an older village. About half of that housing survives, and the restoration programme of 1980 to 1984 cost £4 million. Read as a roofer, that history gives one warning and one assurance. The warning is that a roof here has probably been repaired and re-covered several times by different hands. The assurance is that the buildings were thought worth saving, and the surviving half was restored.

Our approach in Trinity begins from the street. A terrace on a grid gives us a row of similar roofs to compare. If one slope has dipped where its neighbour has not, we know where to look. We note ridge lines, chimney stacks, the rhythm of the courses and the state of the verges at each end. Next comes the loft, where we set what we saw outside against what is overhead.

Roofs from this period are often steep and simple, and they depend on their pitch to shed water. Where a later owner has changed the covering for something heavier, or opened a dormer, the original logic can be lost. If you plan to alter the shape, consent is likely to be a conversation to have with Somerset Council before money is spent.

Repair matters as much as replacement. A roof can lose a few slates and still be worth keeping, and a stack can be repointed rather than rebuilt. When we recommend a larger job, we say what is driving it. Our pitched roofing page describes the options for tiled and slated slopes, and the difference between relaying and re-covering is set out there in full.

In a conservation area, the colour, size and texture of the covering matter to the street. We match what is there, and we keep a note of what each repair uses so that the next one can follow it.

The town centre stands about 65 metres above sea level. The outer districts sit between 90 and 135 metres, and the land between rises unevenly. For a roof, that matters in two ways. The upper streets see more wind, and the slopes themselves can make access awkward: scaffold needs levelling, ladders need footing, and delivery of materials by hand may be the only option on a steep lane.

Wind works on the edges first. A ridge tile bedded in mortar may crack, and then the cracked section loosens. A verge tile that has lost its pointing can lift. The relevant British Standard, BS 5534, does not count on plain mortar alone for the ridge, hip or verge, so any we re-fix are also held mechanically. For a whole new ridge, a dry-fix system built to BS 8612 is worth pricing against mortar.

The other wind casualty is the slate or tile that has slipped without anyone noticing. From the road, a single gap at the third course is hard to see. From the garden, it is obvious. Through a gap, rain gets to the batten and the felt, and the damage creeps sideways. We ask for a quick survey after a gale, and where we find a gap we can often replace a handful of units and leave the rest.

If you want a second opinion on an old slope, a pitched roofing survey will tell you if the covering is spent or if a repair will hold. The survey report sets it out under three headings: what needs doing now, what can wait, and what a full replacement would involve.

Hill streets also see runoff. A gutter that was sized for a valley house may not cope with the water coming down a long slope in a heavy storm, and a downpipe may need an extra bend or a bigger outlet. These are small jobs, but they protect the wall below.