Roofers in Thakeham

The county history names Cootes, on Thakeham Street, as a timber-framed house of about 1400, and says several other timber-framed houses survive, some cased in stone or brick. Casing hides a frame but not its movement. Timber swells and shrinks with damp and heat, joints settle, and the roof sits on whatever the walls have become. For a roofer the first question is whether the roof is bearing on sound timber. Before quoting we look at where the rafters end, at the timber they rest on and at the roof space for older repairs, because a new covering laid on tired timber is money wasted. A sagging ridge or a slope that has dropped slightly between its rafters does not always mean failure; on an old frame it is often just age, and we say which it is.

After the Second World War the south of the parish took on the character of a dormitory suburb, and by 1981 some 18 streets and closes with over 200 mainly private houses had spread over Heath common, according to the county history. Houses of that age often carry later additions: a flat-roofed rear room, a garage with a sheet roof, a porch, original timber fascias replaced in plastic. Each is a separate roof with its own life, its own fall and its own weak points. A rear extension roof that was laid flat with no fall holds a pool by the wall, and the pool is where the felt or sheet gives up first. A garage with sheet roofing may be old enough to be asbestos cement, which changes how it can be taken down. MyBuilder puts a flat roof at typically 15 to 30 years, and fascias and soffits at typically 10 to 20 before replacement.