Roofers Moortown

Moortown roofing, the short version

Solid inter-war north Leeds, bay-fronted semis and detached houses on generous plots each side of a busy corner. Moortown is about twenty minutes out, down the valley or over the tops depending on what the traffic is doing, and we are across there constantly. The stock changes street by street here, but the method does not: get up on it or fly it, find where the water is really getting in, explain it in plain words, then put the price in writing.

What we take on for Moortown roofs

Roofers in Moortown: roofing and roof repairs across LS17

Moortown is solid inter-war north Leeds. Off Street Lane and either side of Harrogate Road there are bay-fronted semis and detached houses from the twenties and thirties on generous plots, with heavier stone-built and larger properties nearer the golf course and the Roundhay side. The roofs are typically hipped, in clay or early concrete tile, with a bay roof at the front, deep boxed eaves and a substantial shared stack between each pair. Later additions have brought rear extensions, loft conversions and dormers into a roofscape that was originally very plain, and most of the leaks we get called to here start at one of those joins.

Take a standard Moortown semi and the fault list writes itself. Hip mortar cracked and lifting after decades of movement; ridge tiles rocking where the bedding has gone; verge mortar broken away at the gable; clay tiles delaminated at the nose and shedding flakes into the gutter; and the small bay roof, often lead, frequently original and hardly ever inspected. Add a rear extension and you get an abutment flashing that was sealed rather than cut into the brickwork, and add a dormer and you get cheeks and a flat top that were detailed by somebody whose main trade was not roofing.

The stacks deserve their own mention. Inter-war houses here have tall shared stacks serving two properties, and where flues have been capped or fires taken out, the stack often stands unused and unloved. Rain gets into the flue, the flaunching cracks, pots work loose and the lead at the base splits from movement. Because the stack is shared, work on it means agreement with the neighbour, and it is far cheaper to do the whole thing once than to have each side patched separately. Mature street trees along Street Lane and the avenues keep the gutters busy on top of all that.

LS17 is a straightforward run from Bradford, out on the A658 and down the A61, or across and round on the ring road. We survey free and we go up rather than guessing, because hip, bay and stack detail cannot be judged from a drive. You get photographs, a plain explanation of what is failing and a written quote with the figure fixed. Chimney repairs, repointing, re-flaunching and new flashings, alongside repairs and full re-roofs. £5m public liability insurance, ten-year written workmanship guarantee, emergency callouts seven days a week. Ring 0113 460 1042.

Moortown houses and the roofs they carry

Between-the-wars housing

Inter-war housing around Moortown usually means hipped roofs in clay or early concrete tile over felt that was never expected to last ninety years. Hip irons, ridges and the eaves are where it shows first, and they are worth looking at before a winter rather than after one.

Post-war estates

Post-war housing in Moortown is largely concrete tile gone porous, brittle felt at the eaves and fascia boards quietly rotting behind the gutter. Re-covers are normal at this age, and ours go on with breathable membrane, dry verges and ventilation that actually does something.

Large detached houses

The larger detached houses in Moortown 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.

Newer builds and dry-fix roofs

Newer houses in Moortown 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.

In Moortown that mostly means Street Lane, Harrogate Road and the avenues off Moortown Corner, and the streets running off them.

What we are called out to most in LS17

• Cement-bedded ridges cracked the length of the run
• 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
• 1930s coverings reaching the end all at once

Any of that familiar? Ring 0113 460 1042 or book the free survey and somebody will come and look at it properly.

Why Moortown property owners use Bradford Roofing

• Bradford firm, Moortown on the round — The yard is in Bradford, not a call centre in another county. Whoever climbs up to survey the roof in Moortown is one of the people who comes back to do the work.
• 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.
• Materials matched to Moortown roofs — Reclaimed Yorkshire stone slate, Welsh slate, clay and concrete tile matched to whatever came off, and lead used where lead belongs instead of tape and mastic.
• Storm work, seven days a week — When the wind strips a run of slates in Moortown it is the same number to ring. We make it safe first, photograph it for the insurer, then come back and repair it properly.

Around Moortown

If you are right on the edge of Moortown, the neighbouring pages are Gledhow (LS8), roofers in Moor Allerton, roofers in Oakwood, Chapel Allerton, Roundhay (LS8) and Chapeltown — and then every other area across Leeds and the Bradford district.