A hipped roof stripped and re-laid in dark concrete tile

A hipped roof is more work than it looks from the pavement. Every hip is a line of cut tiles, and the four slopes have to meet at the top without a low spot, so the setting out matters more than it does on a plain gable roof. This one is on a street of semis in Stamford, with the neighbouring houses close enough on both sides that the scaffold and the setting out had to be right first time.

What came off

The old covering came off along with the battens beneath it. The photographs of the strip-out show what was under there: sarking that had broken down between the rafters and old battens that had nothing left to give. There is no way to see any of that from the ground, and it is the usual reason a roof that looks tired from the street turns out to be tired all the way through.

What went back on

A breathable membrane went over the rafters, new treated battens on top of it, and the roof was covered in a dark flat-profile concrete tile, laid up each slope with the hips cut in as the work went rather than filled afterwards. The chimney stayed, and the tiling was worked around it.