Roofers in Lee-on-the-Solent

Lee-on-the-Solent faces the Solent from the Hampshire side, west of Gosport, and that one fact colours how we read a roof here. A house with an open view across the water gets wind and driving rain on its roofline in a way that a house sheltered by neighbours on every side does not. So we begin each Lee survey at the exposed edges, since that is where weather finds its way in first and where a small fault turns into a stained ceiling a few months later.

1.1 Gable edges, ridge lines and hip corners

Three parts of a pitched roof take the worst of the wind. The verge is the gable-end edge, where the last tiles overhang the wall. The ridge is the line along the summit where two slopes meet. The hips are the angled outer corners you find on a hipped roof. Each is held by a mortar bed, by screws and clips, or by dry-fix fittings (mechanical pieces that need no mortar), depending on who last worked on the roof and when. A ridge pressed into mortar and nothing else is how roofs were done before BS 5534 was revised in 2014; since then a mechanical fixing is expected to back the bed up. A crumbled bed on an older roof can therefore leave a capping with nothing else keeping it in place, and a gale finds that out quickly. If a ridge shifts when you press it, or a gap has opened between verge tile and wall, deal with it before the next blow rather than after.

1.2 Salt air, spray and a regular look-over

Beside the sea the air carries salt, and a roof nobody climbs up to inspect quietly collects moss, windblown grit and grubby edges. That is why we photograph the entire roof and never just the patch a homeowner points at. Gutters earn the same scrutiny. A clogged run overspills behind the fascia (the long board the gutter is screwed to) and soaks the rafter ends. The damage is slow, and it shows up as a damp mark inside long after the cause has settled in. Our ridge tile repairs page describes how loose cappings are lifted, rebedded and fixed properly.

1.3 What you receive after the survey

You get the photographs, a clear verdict (mend it, hold it for now, or renew it) and then a written quote that gives a single total. Where a ridge refix will hold, we recommend that over a new roof, and we say why in plain words. That is the order we work in on this coast: look closely, explain the finding, then price only the job the roof needs.

Lee-on-the-Solent began as a piece of the ancient parish of Titchfield, whose foreshore ran seven miles from the River Hamble to Stokes Bay. In 1894 Crofton, Stubbington and Lee-on-the-Solent were made a civil parish under the Local Government Act. The seaside resort itself was laid out from the 1880s, with Sir John Robinson behind its early plans. That history of changing boundaries is a handy reminder when you stand in a Lee street: homes built at different moments stand shoulder to shoulder, and the roof on each carries its own age, covering and repair record.

3.1 Why age alone never settles the question

A roof that has stood for decades may have had its ridge rebedded, its flashings renewed and its underlay (the membrane beneath the tiles) swapped, while a younger one next door may have been laid with little care. So a date never decides the job. We go up, photograph each fault, and sort the roof into one of three outcomes. Either we refix what has slipped, or we overhaul the edges and flashings and leave the main covering alone, or we recommend a re-roof once the covering and its battens (the slim timber rails fixed across the rafters) have run their course, and the underlay with them. Re-roofing is the biggest of the three outcomes, so we only recommend it when the photographs show why a lesser job would not last. Our pitched roofing page lays out what a strip and relay actually involves day by day.

3.2 Flat extensions, garages and falling water

Where a house has a flat-roofed extension or garage, drainage comes before everything else. BS 6229:2025 sets a minimum finished fall of 1:80, and a roofer designs steeper so that the finished surface still sheds water. If puddles stay for days after rain, the fall or the deck beneath is telling you something. We study the edge trims and upstands (where the covering climbs the wall behind it) before choosing between a patch and a fresh covering. A tired covering with a sound deck is a simple job. A soft deck is not, and it is better to learn that on the survey than halfway through the work.

3.3 When re-roofing needs approval

The Planning Portal sets two limits for skipping a building control application: the work must affect less than 25 per cent of the total building envelope and less than 50 per cent of the roof. A much heavier new covering or a structural change can alter that, and so can a roof that has been altered before. Gosport Borough Council can say what applies in your case, and we deal with the notification whenever your work falls under it.