Slate Roofing Portsmouth

Where we are refixing slates season after season, the fixings have reached the end of their service life and the slate has not. Refixing remains appropriate until enough of the elevation is loose that returning costs more than renewing. A director confirms whether the roof needs a roof replacement instead.

A Portsmouth terrace roof is reached from the street, so each return visit requires the access equipment again. A director records how many returns the elevation is likely to need.

Battens and roof underlay sit under the slate and reach the end of their service life first. We renew both while the slope is open, because reaching them later means lifting the slate a second time. The quotation names each of them.

Portsmouth’s surviving Victorian terraces were repaired in phases through the post-war decades, so a director records at survey which battens are original and which belong to that later work.

We reach the lead properly only while the slate around it is off, so we settle it within the same visit. We measure the lead at every chimney, abutment and valley during the survey, and the quotation itemises it separately.

The villas developed at Southsea from the 1830s were built with more elaborate stacks than the terraces beside them, so several abutments can sit on one slope there.

We work the eaves course, the fascia and the gutter line from the same scaffold, and the eaves is where a slate roof is most often disturbed. Renewing them in one visit avoids a second visit to the same run, and the quotation prices each item separately.

A Portsmouth terrace frontage usually accommodates one scaffold position, and where that frontage meets the pavement the team sheets the footway before the gutter line is lifted.

A slate roof carries its covering for a generation, so a director settles the choice at the survey. Slate keeps the thin profile and the shadow lines the elevation was built with, and tile roofing changes both. We price both materials for the same roof, so you decide on the quotation.

The post-war estates across the city were roofed in tile, so the two coverings are found within a few streets of each other.

The initial visit establishes which slate the elevation carries and how it was originally set out and lapped. A director additionally records the condition of the fixings, the battens and the rafters beneath. A roof inspection is the appropriate starting point where you need the existing roof assessed rather than renewed.

Within 48 hours of the survey you receive an itemised quotation. It itemises the retained slate and the replacement slate separately, and the underlay, the battens, the lead and the ridge are priced alongside them. Labour and waste removal are listed on their own. There is no obligation and no hidden extras.

The team completes the stripping elevation by elevation and sorts the serviceable slate as it is removed, stacking it away from the working platform. The ground beneath the eaves is sheeted before anything is disturbed. The stacks stand clear of the driveway, so the household keeps the use of it throughout.

The team establishes the courses and the lap from the eaves, so the lines continue across the elevation and register correctly with the hips, the valleys, the verges and the abutments. Where the original slate returns to the slope, the setting out accommodates the sizes recovered from it.

The team clears the accumulated debris from the gutters and the valleys, and the surplus slate remains stacked wherever the household prefers. The record of the slate hung, and of the battens and underlay renewed beneath it, is issued with the invoice.

Yes, for the proportion that comes off sound, which on a roof that has not been coated or filleted is most of the elevation. The team sorts the slate on the scaffolding and reinstates it on new battens and fresh underlay, elevation by elevation. The shortfall is supplied from matching stock and itemised within the quotation. A director establishes that proportion at the survey. Where a single slate has slipped and the remainder of the slope is serviceable, a roof repair is the appropriate course.

Slate that is to be reinstated remains on the property, stacked clear of the working area. The remainder is removed and the surrounding ground swept at completion. A slate installation requires standing room for the stacked slate in addition to the skip. On the city’s older terraced streets there is rarely a driveway and frequently no side return, so the stacked slate has nowhere to stand. The city’s later estates have driveways that take the stack alongside the skip. Where neither will fit, we confirm the arrangement with you in advance of the booking.

Only the slope being worked is open at any point, and the team covers it before leaving the property. We sequence the stripping elevation by elevation rather than opening the entire roof, so the property never depends on a temporary covering across every slope. Slate already stacked is unaffected by rain, and the setting out resumes from the course the team had reached.

Yes. Where the elevation or the rafters beneath will not carry slate, a director advises against it at survey and prices tile or an alternative covering instead. The same applies where the roof was never slated. Portsmouth’s council-built estates, raised across the city after the Second World War, were tiled from the outset, as were the estates added since. A change of material confers no appreciable benefit on those elevations. We recommend slate where the elevation was originally built with it.

A telephone call or the contact form, and access to the roof on the day of the survey. A director establishes what is on the roof, how it was originally set out and what lies immediately beneath it. The written, itemised quotation follows within 48 hours of that survey. You are under no obligation to proceed with the installation. We work to the same arrangement everywhere in our Portsmouth service area.