Roofers Buttershaw

Buttershaw roofing, the short version

A fifties estate on high ground at the south-west corner of the city, open to the weather on three sides of it. Buttershaw is barely out of the city centre, so surveys and small jobs there get slotted in around bigger work on the same side of Bradford. The same short list of faults keeps coming back on Buttershaw roofs, and the useful part of a survey is knowing which of them is a morning's work and which means the covering has finally had its day.

What we take on for Buttershaw roofs

Roofers in Buttershaw: roofing and roof repairs across BD6

Buttershaw is a large local authority estate built in the 1950s on high ground at the south-west corner of the city, laid out along Reevy Road West, The Boulevard, Cooper Lane and the roads off them. The house types repeat, which for roofing purposes is an advantage: shallow hipped and gabled roofs in concrete interlocking tile, mortar-bedded ridges and verges, bitumen felt beneath, and timber fascias behind the gutter. Much of it is now owner-occupied or privately let, and the roofs across the whole estate are reaching the same point at more or less the same time.

That point is the end of the covering's life. A concrete tile made seventy years ago has lost the cement-rich skin that kept water out of it, so it soaks up wet, gains weight, holds moss and cracks when anyone stands on it. Underneath, the felt has gone hard and split along the eaves, which is why a loft can be damp after driving rain with no tile missing at all. Between the two, the mortar along the ridges and verges has crumbled out and the first stiff blow takes a tile off the end of a run and puts it in the garden.

Exposure up here is the thing that decides the specification. The estate stands high with open land to the west and south and nothing to break the prevailing wind, so anything relying on a bed of mortar at a roof edge is on borrowed time. A re-cover done properly means a strip, new treated battens at the right gauge, breathable membrane, matched tile and a dry-fixed ridge and verge system that is mechanically held and ventilated. Done that way it stops being a maintenance item. Done cheaply, in mortar, you are back on the same roof in a few winters.

We do a lot of work on estates of this type and BD6 is a short run from us. Free survey including a look in the loft, because the felt and the batten ends tell you more than the tiles do. Written quote with the tile and the dry-fix system named, and a straight answer if all a roof genuinely needs is the ridges and verges sorting. Full re-covers, repairs, fascias, soffits and gutters done off the same scaffold, and neighbours are welcome to have two or three houses looked at together. Insured, guaranteed in writing for ten years.

Buttershaw houses and the roofs they carry

Newer builds and dry-fix roofs

Newer houses in Buttershaw get roof problems too, just different ones: dry-verge caps lifting, ridges that were never bedded properly, and snagging the builder walked away from. We put the details right and pick it up from where the warranty ran out.

1950s and 1960s estate housing

The 1950s and 1960s houses in Buttershaw have plain gabled or hipped roofs, which keeps a re-cover sensible on price. Fascia, soffit and gutter replacement on these streets is a steady part of most weeks.

Detached houses with complicated roofs

The larger detached houses in Buttershaw have busy roofs: several hips, long valleys, dormers, and whatever has been added on over thirty years. The work has to be neat and the materials have to match, and the drive and the borders get looked after while we are on site.

Stone terraced rows

The terraced rows in Buttershaw share a good deal more than a wall. The stack usually straddles the party line, and on the older streets the gutter runs the length of several houses, which is why a fault three doors down turns up in your back bedroom. We would rather see the whole run than one roof in isolation.

In Buttershaw that mostly means Reevy Road West, The Boulevard and Cooper Lane, and the streets running off them.

What we are called out to most in BD6

• Builder snagging nobody ever came back to finish
• Concrete tiles gone porous and holding damp
• Felt turned brittle and split along the eaves
• Multi-hip roofs with long, awkward valleys
• Extension and conservatory abutments flashed badly from new
• Dry verges and ridge fixings shaken loose

Spotted one of those from the ground? Put the details in or ring 0113 460 1042 and we will get the drone up and show you what is really going on up there.

Why Buttershaw property owners use Bradford Roofing

• Priced on paper, broken down — Every quote is written out and itemised, normally a day or so after the visit, so you can see what you are paying for and what has been left out on purpose.
• Drone up where a ladder tells you nothing — Steep gritstone pitches, tall multi-flue stacks and mill ranges get flown and photographed. You see exactly the same pictures we do before you decide anything.
• Insured, and guaranteed in writing — £5m public liability, £10m employer’s liability, and a ten-year written guarantee on the workmanship for all major work.
• Storm work, seven days a week — When the wind strips a run of slates in Buttershaw it is the same number to ring. We make it safe first, photograph it for the insurer, then come back and repair it properly.
• Access settled before the price — Narrow back streets, shared ginnels, hillside plots and working yards. How the scaffold goes up is worked out at the survey, not argued about on the first morning.

Around Buttershaw

Nearest to Buttershaw on our list are Wibsey (BD6), Low Moor, roofers in Odsal, Great Horton (BD7), Wyke (BD12) and Little Horton. The rest of the patch sits on the area finder, all of the Bradford district and Leeds included.