Tucked in among Old Market's Georgian townhouses, converted commercial buildings and newer flats, a handful of smaller, older houses remain that predate much of the surrounding development, modest in scale and simple in construction, closer to a cottage than to a grand terrace. These are often among the oldest roofs in the quarter, and re-roofing them tends to throw up questions that a standard modern specification, designed with newer housing in mind, doesn't always fully answer.
Roof structures on these older houses were commonly built by eye rather than to a fixed standard, which means pitches, spans and timber sizes can vary noticeably even between properties that look similar from the outside. Before any new covering goes on, we take time to understand how the existing roof is actually built, rather than assuming it follows a modern layout, so that battens, fixings and ventilation can all be specified correctly for what's really there, rather than for what a typical roof of similar age might have.
It's also common on this style of older Old Market house to find several generations of past repairs layered on top of one another; a patch of different tiles here, a run of mismatched mortar there, older lead that has been dressed and re-dressed over the years by different hands with different approaches. A full re-roof gives the chance to clear all of that away and start again with materials and detailing that match properly, rather than continuing to build repairs on top of repairs and hoping the roof holds together for another winter.
Because these houses are generally smaller and simpler than their taller neighbours, the actual re-roofing work is often more contained, but the age of the building means unexpected timber decay or historic alterations can still surface once the old covering is removed, and it's worth budgeting some contingency for this rather than being caught out partway through the job when the roof is already stripped bare.
Chimneys, where present, also tend to be original on these older houses and often need attention of their own, from repointing to new flashing, and it makes sense to have this looked at alongside the roof rather than treating it as an entirely separate piece of work that gets scheduled for another time.
Because so few of these smaller houses remain among Old Market's newer development, there's often a genuine desire from owners to preserve their character rather than simply modernise them outright, and a re-roof can be specified with that in mind, using materials and detailing that respect the building's age rather than defaulting to the cheapest available option regardless of fit.
If you own one of Old Market's older, smaller houses and are thinking about a full re-roof, Brunel Roofing Bristol can inspect the roof properly before quoting, so you know what you're dealing with before work begins.
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