Full re-roof with a dry-fix ridge

The roof had reached the end of its life rather than developed a single fault. The old slate was holding moss and lichen across the whole of the north-facing slope, and the ridge and hips were bedded in mortar that had cracked and started to let go. That is the point at which patching one section only moves the problem along to the next.

Stripped back and rebuilt

The roof came off completely, the main roof and the lower elevation together. Once it was down to the rafters we laid a Proctor Air breathable membrane and re-battened throughout in treated timber, which is the part nobody sees and the part that decides how long the finished roof lasts.

Redland 49 tiles and a dry-fix ridge

The new covering is Redland 49 concrete tile. The ridge and both hips are a dry-fix system: mechanically fixed rather than bedded in mortar, so there is nothing up there to crack, wash out and need repointing in a few winters' time. That is the failure we had just stripped off, and it is not worth rebuilding.

Two chimney stacks, two different answers

There were two stacks. One was redundant, so it was dismantled and the roof closed over the opening and tiled through as though it had never been there. The other was re-flashed from scratch: new soakers, step flashing, apron and back gutter, all in lead, dressed to the new tile profile.

Fascias, soffits and rainwater

New fascias and soffits went on along with a new deep flow guttering system and downpipes. The scaffold was already up and paid for, which is the moment to do this work rather than a year later.

The photographs start with the finished roof. Keep going and they run back through the work to the roof that was there before.