Slate Roofing Gosport

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 team sorts a whole Alverstoke elevation at once, stacking the slate in course order so it returns to the slope in the order it came off.

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 Lee-on-the-Solent villa is detached, so a director records how far the fixings have loosened on each slope and prices the refixing for each one.

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.

Neither the Alverstoke terraces nor the Lee-on-the-Solent villas were built with underlay beneath the slate, so a full underlay is priced into the work on both.

Sprayed coatings, mortar fillets and torching all held ageing slate in place at one time, and each of them makes the slate beneath harder to recover. Where a slope carries one of those treatments, a director establishes at survey how much of the original covering we can still re-hang.

Some of the Alverstoke terraces and the Lee-on-the-Solent villas have been coated or filleted. The quotation prices the recovery of those slopes separately from the re-hang.

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.

A director expects slate on an Alverstoke terrace and tile on a Rowner estate roof, and confirms which of them the elevation carries at the survey.

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. Standing room is tight on the older Alverstoke terraces; the driveways on Gosport’s later estate housing take the stacks more readily. 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. Gosport’s estate housing was built in tile through the middle of the twentieth century, as were the flats and houses that replaced parts of it 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 Gosport service area.