Roofers in Pill

A house on the southern bank of the Avon looks across open land at the water. That openness is pleasant, and it is also the reason a roof here is tested harder than one in the middle of a town. We do not have a figure for local rainfall or wind, and we will not invent one, but the principle holds anywhere with a clear approach: air arriving at speed gets under loose edges and lifts them.

The first signs are small. A tile edge chipped at the corner. A strip of ridge mortar that has cracked. A flashing, the lead or metal strip sealing the join between roof and wall, curling away at its top edge. None of these is a leak in itself, but each is the starting point for one, because water follows the line of a gap.

When a call comes in about a leak, we begin by working out where the water is entering, which is often not where it appears inside. Water can travel a surprising way along a batten or a rafter before it drips. We check the likely entry points in order: ridge, valleys, flashings, then the field of the roof.

If the roof is leaking now, we make it safe first, and storm damage and leaks take priority in our diary. That may mean a temporary cover or a patch. Then comes the lasting repair, aimed at the cause. Our roof repairs service describes how a typical repair is diagnosed and carried out, and what we do when it turns out that a larger job is needed.

Ham Green House opened as an isolation hospital in 1899. After the hospital largely closed in the 1990s, much of the site was redeveloped for housing and for the Eden Office Park. That gives Pill two quite different groups of roofs from the same piece of land: the houses and the commercial units.

The newer houses are relatively young, so what we usually see are early faults rather than age. A ridge that was bedded without fixings, a verge that has opened, an underlay torn at the eaves. We recommend checking any builder's or developer's warranty first and letting it run for the faults it covers. For anything outside it, a survey tells you what needs doing.

Commercial roofs are another matter. An office park will usually have flat or low-pitched roofs, with membranes, upstands, rooflights and drainage outlets. The typical failure points are the seams, the details round penetrations and the outlets where leaves and debris collect. A flat roof that ponds water will age much faster than one that drains. For typical UK prices, MyBuilder (2026) gives flat roof replacement at £2,800 to £7,500, and per square metre EPDM at £90 to £130 and GRP at £95 to £150. For commercial work our fixed quote follows the survey.

A business that cannot stop trading has a particular need: work that fits around the building's use. We agree access, noise and working hours with whoever manages the unit and plan the work in phases where we can. The flat roofing service explains EPDM, GRP, felt and lead and how each is chosen, and what a warm-deck upgrade means for a roof's insulation.