Slate Roofing Fleet

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.

On Fleet’s earliest streets the slate is original to the property, so the fixings securing it belong to a single generation across the entire elevation.

We strip slate by hand and sort it on the scaffold, and we set aside every piece that remains sound to be hung again. What we renew is the batten, the underlay and the fixing beneath it. The survey sets the retained proportion before any slate is ordered.

The shallow-pitched slate on Fleet’s oldest cottages is generally serviceable enough to reinstate, and the decorative clay ridge tiles above it are retained and re-bedded.

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.

Slate of that generation in Fleet was hung on battens alone, with no underlay beneath it. A director therefore establishes what the slope is carrying before anything is priced.

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.

Fleet’s older villas carry tall stacks, and a single slope can therefore have two or three lead abutments. Every upstand, apron and soaker is measured individually during the survey.

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.

Slate and tile are found on neighbouring Fleet streets, and tile arrived with the cottage-style properties of the 1920s.

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. The driveways on Fleet’s later developments provide it; the oldest properties on the original grid frequently do not. 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. Fleet’s cottage-style properties of the 1920s and 1930s were tiled from the outset, as were the post-war bungalows and the estates added since the late 1990s. 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 Fleet service area.