Roofers in Hanham

Hanham Hall dates from 1655 and is listed Grade II*, a grade given to a small share of listed buildings that are particularly important. Whatever your own property, the hall is a reminder that Hanham has roofs old enough to be protected, and that the protection covers the roof as well as the walls. If your building is listed, changes to its covering, its chimneys or its roof windows need listed building consent before work begins. The consent authority here is South Gloucestershire Council, and it is the right first call, ahead of any quote.

Listed building consent sits apart from planning permission, and a repair in the same material may draw less scrutiny than a change of one. The practical point for a roofer is the evidence. A conservation officer cannot respond to a vague description, so we record the failing tiles, the replacements we propose and the method for the leadwork and fixings.

On an old roof the timber frame is usually the most valuable part and the most easily overlooked. Rafters and purlins (the long beams that carry the rafters at mid-slope) can hold years of leak damage that the covering hides. In the roof space we probe any soft timber with a bradawl and photograph it, because a re-cover laid over rotten timber will fail wherever the rot is.

When the covering has to be renewed, the aim is the roof as it was built, put right. Natural slate stays natural slate, clay stays clay, and we avoid swapping to a lighter or heavier material without a reason. Choosing a covering that weighs at least 15% more than the old one triggers Building Regulations approval along with a structural check, and a change of that scale on a listed building also alters what the conservation officer will ask.

For slopes like these, see pitched roofing; a full strip and re-cover is covered on the roof replacement page. If you are unsure which applies, a survey settles it before any price is given.

The eco village on the former Hanham Hall Hospital site was designed as a blueprint for the proposed zero-carbon eco-towns, and the houses on it were built to a standard the older roofs around them never faced. The point for a roofer is that the covering is only one layer in a system. Underneath may be insulation, a vapour control layer to keep warm moist air out of the build-up, and a breathable membrane. Cut or compress the wrong layer and you can change how the whole roof behaves.

So on a modern low-energy roof, repairs are conservative. A cracked or slipped tile can be swapped without disturbing the layers below, provided the replacement is the same profile. Flashings round roof windows and vent pipes are renewed in the same metal and dressed the same way, and the old sealant is cleared before new material goes on. What we avoid is fixing a fault by adding material over it, which can trap moisture.

New work is held to Part L of the Building Regulations. Where a roof window is replaced, the limit for the whole window is 1.4 W/m²K, or Band B when measured on the Window Energy Rating scale, and a rooflight has its own limit. The planning side for roof windows is covered on the skylights and roof windows page, so we do not repeat the rules here.

Older houses in the parish may have added loft insulation over the years, and on any of them it pays to keep a ventilated gap at the eaves. Insulation that is pushed hard into the eaves cuts off the air that keeps the timbers dry. A roofer often finds this when called out for a damp patch, and it is simple to put right.

One more check applies across Hanham, new and old: flat roofs on dormers, porches and extensions. They fail at edges and outlets more than in the open field of the roof, and a short inspection will show whether patching or replacing makes sense.