Roofers in Kingswood

Coal mining brought Kingswood to industrial prominence in the late 17th century, and its effects are still part of local conversation. We know that gardens sometimes open up and that questions about surveys of the old mines have reached Parliament. That is the whole of what we claim about the ground, because the ground is someone else's field. For a roofer, the point is narrower: a building that has settled or shifted tells you so in the roof.

The first clue is the ridge. A ridge line should be straight. If it sags in the middle, either the timbers have deflected or the walls beneath have moved apart. The second is the chimney stack, which stands on the wall and shows movement clearly: a stack that leans, or has a crack through its stonework or brickwork, deserves a careful look. The third is the line where the roof meets a gable wall, where a gap that opens and closes with the seasons suggests movement rather than a failed flashing.

None of this means a building is unsafe, and we do not say so. Old houses move a little as they age. What matters is whether the movement is old and settled or new and continuing. Each sign gets photographed and its position noted, and recommend that you ask a structural engineer if we find anything that looks recent. A new covering should not be laid over a problem the covering did not cause.

When the cause is the covering, the fix is the usual one. A slipped slate is refixed, a perished flashing is replaced and a worn felt is renewed. When the cause is deeper, we say what we found and what it would take. Our roof inspections work can give you a written record to keep, which is useful if you later talk to a surveyor, a buyer or an insurer.

A town that has grown for centuries gets extended upwards as well as outwards, and a loft room is among the commonest changes. The roofing side is simple to describe. An opening is cut in the slope, a frame is fitted and flashings are dressed around it so the join sheds water. Doing it well takes patience, because the flashing at the head, the sides and the sill all work as one system, and a mistake at any of them lets water in.

The cut matters as much as the window. When a rafter is trimmed, the load it carried has to be picked up by timbers either side, so the opening is framed with a header and trimmers before the frame goes in. Around that frame the underlay is lapped into the surround so water that gets under the tiles is led out over the flashing and not into the loft. We renew the battens at the opening and match the covering round it, so the new detail sits on sound material.

Insulation and air movement come next. A loft room is warmed from below, and the roof above it needs insulation without losing the gap that lets damp air out. Squash the insulation hard against the underside of the covering and condensation collects on the cold timber, which shows up later as dark patches or soft wood. We lay the build-up so that air can still move, and we check the eaves before we close anything up.

Rules sit around all of this. Escape routes from a habitable room, heat-loss limits for the window and the question of consent are separate matters, each with its own test. We do not repeat them here. The roofing detail and the planning and regulation points are set out under skylights and roof windows, and the building control body signs off your design. If your house is listed or sits inside a conservation area, start with South Gloucestershire Council.

Once the window is in, the roof around it is ours to guarantee in writing for ten years, and the site is left tidy.