Roofers in Winsley

The ridge is the highest part of a roof and the first to feel a gale. On a pitched roof it is capped with ridge tiles, and in an exposed village like Winsley those caps do a lot of work. If they loosen, wind gets under neighbouring tiles, and one lost cap can become a run of lost tiles.

Many older ridges were bedded in mortar, which cracks as the roof moves and the weather works at it. The slating and tiling standard, BS 5534:2014, leaves ridge, hip and verge tiles to more than mortar and expects mechanical fixing as well. A ridge we re-bed gets those fixings. A dry-fix ridge, which uses clips, a ventilated roll and seals instead of wet mortar, is often the better long-term choice on a windy site, and the products are tested to BS 8612:2018.

The verge, where tiles run out past the gable wall, is the next place wind attacks. Failed pointing under the end tiles lets air in beneath them, and the tile edge lifts in a gust. Verges can be mortared and tied, or finished with a dry-fix system. Either way, the tiles should be mechanically held. Costs vary with length and access, and MyBuilder's 2026 guide gives dry ridge as £40 to £60 per linear metre, a typical UK range rather than a price from us. The fixed figure for your house is given once we have surveyed it.

Hips, the sloping ridges on a hipped roof, deserve the same attention. The tiles that cap them can slide as the bedding fails, and a hip tile that slips down the slope can land on a path or a car. Our ridge and verge repairs work covers all three edges, usually in a single visit, and the scaffold or tower can often be shared with other work on the same elevation.

If you have noticed tiles on the lawn after a storm, tell us where you found them. The location often points directly at the fault.

Tyning, to the north-east of the old village, dates from the 1960s. Church Farm, to the north-west, is from the 1980s. A roofer who knows the dates can predict a good deal about what is underneath before a ladder goes up.

We never assume what is on an estate roof, because earlier owners may have re-covered it. On a roof of the 1960s the layers to check are the felt beneath the battens, which can dry out and split at its laps, and the ridge bedding, which can crumble. A roof can shed rain for a surprising time with both in that state. The warning signs are daylight at the ridge, stains on the loft boards below the line of the felt, and tiles that move when pressed gently.

A roof from the 1980s belongs to a later generation of building. The timbers are likely to be machine-cut trusses rather than hand-fitted rafters, and the fittings at the edges differ from older work. The usual weak points are still the verges, the valley where two slopes meet and the flashings at chimneys and walls. We look at each on a Church Farm roof as we would on any other, and we identify the covering by examining it.

Neighbouring houses on an estate share their faults. If the house next door has had its ridge re-bedded, yours probably wants checking. Where a whole row is due, one run of scaffold can serve several roofs, which spreads that cost. We are glad to give each owner a separate written price for the same visit. A roof that has worn out completely is the subject of roof replacement, which sets out how the work runs.

Bigger re-roofs fall under Building Regulations. Planning Portal guidance says approval is not normally needed if the work touches under 25% of the building envelope and also under 50% of the roof, while a larger job can bring a thermal upgrade. We explain which applies to your house before pricing it.

Figures: Winsley entry, Wikipedia, checked October 2026