Flashings, ridge, verge & pointing in Macclesfield
Junctions leak. The flat middle of a roof rarely fails — what fails is every place the roof meets something else: a wall, a chimney, another roof plane, or the open edge at the verge. Nearly all routine roofing work is at these junctions, and nearly all of it is mortar or lead.
The single biggest change in this part of the trade came in 2014, when BS 5534 was revised. Mortar bedding on its own is no longer an accepted fixing for ridges, hips or verges — every unit has to be mechanically fixed as well, either with a dry-fix system or with clips and screws under a traditional bed. It is a genuine improvement and not a sales tactic: bedded-only ridges are precisely what comes off in a gale.
Dry ridge and dry verge systems do away with the mortar entirely — a ventilated ridge roll and mechanically fixed units, and a clip-on verge instead of a mortar undercloak. They do not crack, they ventilate the roof properly, and they are what almost every new-build now uses. Where a traditional mortar look is wanted, or required in a conservation area, it can still be done as long as the mechanical fixing is there underneath.
Exposure decides how hard any of this is working. Temperature falls about half a degree per hundred metres, and the Met Office records materially more air frost on the high ground than on the Cheshire plain — Buxton averages 51.5 air-frost days a year against 40.0 at low-lying Woodford. Kerridge Hill is 313 metres and Shutlingsloe 506. Freeze-thaw on a mortar bed at that height is a different proposition to the same bed in Broken Cross.
Flashing, pointing & ridge — every job, in detail.
6 jobs in this category. Each has its own page explaining what's involved, what your roofer checks and — just as importantly — when a job can safely wait.
Ridge tile re-bedding
Cracked and failed ridge bedding is the commonest reason a gale takes tiles off the top of a roof. Re-bedding means taking the units off, cleaning back to sound material and setting them in fresh mortar — with mechanical fixings underneath, because mortar alone has not met the standard since 2014.
Read more →Dry ridge & dry verge
A dry system replaces mortar with mechanical fixings and a ventilated ridge roll, so there is nothing to crack and nothing to fall out. It also ventilates the roof space along the whole ridge line, which is a genuine second benefit on a loft that runs damp.
Read more →Verge repair
The verge is the open edge of the roof at a gable, and it is where wind gets under the covering. Mortar verges crack and fall away, and once the edge tiles are loose the wind has something to lift — which is why verges and ridges are where storm damage starts.
Read more →Valley replacement
Replacing a valley means taking the slates or tiles off either side to get at the lining, then relining it properly — correct code lead in appropriate lengths on a sound valley board, or a modern liner where the geometry suits. Sizing it for what actually drains into it is the part that gets missed.
Read more →Abutment & wall flashings
Wherever a roof runs into a wall — an extension against the house, a lean-to, a dormer cheek — the junction needs proper lead soakers and a cover flashing chased into the brickwork. Mortar fillets and bituminous paint are what you normally find there, and both crack.
Read more →Roof pointing
The mortar on a roof — at the ridge, the hips, the verges and around abutments — is sacrificial and eventually needs renewing. The important part is that it is raked out and replaced rather than smeared over, and that mechanical fixings go in where the current standard requires them.
Read more →Not sure which one you need?
Describe it in your own words on the quote form. Your roofer will work out what the job actually is when they ring you back — usually the same day.
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