Bourne Town Hall
Twelve roof adaptations and alterations across eleven separate roofs during a 16 month renovation, including the steel and timber build up carrying a new five metre clock and a 5 degree rear lean-to.
Roofing carpentry · Spalding, Lincolnshire
Roof repairs, alterations and re-roofs
Roof structure repair and alteration across Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire and Norfolk, on houses, village halls, civic buildings and commercial units. Free site visit first, so you know whether you are looking at a repair or a replacement.
What we do
Existing roofs are harder than new ones, and that is the work we want.
Cutting a new roof onto clean wall plates is straightforward. Repairing or altering a roof that is already there, on a building that is still in use, with an unknown structure above the ceiling and a covering that has to come off and go back, is the difficult version. It is also a large part of what AJB Group does.
The work splits into three: repair, where failed timbers are cut out and made good; alteration, where the structure is changed to take a new opening, a new load or a new layout; and re-roof, where the whole thing is stripped back and replaced. Most jobs turn out to be a mixture, which is why the scope gets established properly first rather than discovered halfway through.
Typical items are rotten rafter feet and wall plates found when the fascia comes off, deflected or undersized rafters and purlins, structures altered badly by someone else, new openings trimmed for rooflights and dormers, low pitch lean-to additions, and build ups in steel and timber to carry something the original roof was never designed for.
Where the covering has to come off and go back, AJB fits felt, batten and tile under the roof on and roofed in package, so the building is left water tight by the same company that opened it up.
Repair and alteration work
- Repair
- Rafter feet, wall plates, purlins, deflected timbers
- Re-roof
- Full strip back and replace, new trussed or cut roof
- Openings
- Trimmed for skylights, Velux and dormers
- Build ups
- Steel and timber to carry new loads
- Additions
- Link ways and lean-tos down to 5 degrees
- Coverings
- Felt, batten and tile, slate, GRP
- Survey
- Roof inspections on larger jobs, free domestic visits
The hardest brief we have had
Twelve roofs, one building, sixteen months.
Bourne Town Hall is the largest commercial build AJB has taken on, delivered for Probus Construction across a 16 month renovation that also created a new theatre and cafe for the town.
The roof scope alone ran to twelve adaptations and alterations across a building with eleven separate roofs. Phase one was a hand cut link way roof connecting the main building to the rear extension, with two large Velux windows one either side. Roof inspections were carried out ahead of a re-roof and re-structure on the front elevation, where the clock tower support works finish as a simple sheet of ply and hide a complex build up of steels and timber engineered to carry a new five metre clock. At the rear, a lower lean-to pitched at 5 degrees was built to carry mechanical works and industrial units, alongside new flat roofs and cut roofs elsewhere on the building.
None of that could stop the rest of the site. It ran alongside a live fit-out, under a site manager AJB has publicly credited as a pleasure to work under.
For main contractors, councils and building owners
Refurbishment roof scopes are hard to price because nobody knows exactly what is up there until it is opened. AJB deals with that by inspecting first, pricing the known scope from drawings and the engineer's details, and agreeing how the unknowns get handled before work starts rather than after.
Public and community buildings are regular work: Bourne Town Hall for Probus Construction, Alford Manor House overseen by East Lindsey District Council, Stoke Ferry Village Hall in Norfolk, and a building at Ramsey. CHAS accreditation, SMSTS certification and a retained external health and safety consultant are in place, which is what most of those clients ask for first.
For homeowners
If a ceiling is staining, a roof line is dipping, or a builder has told you the whole roof needs replacing, get a second opinion before you commit. Site visits and written estimates are free, and we will tell you plainly whether it is a repair or a replacement.
Where the roof work sits inside a bigger renovation, AJB can take the whole job, including the other trades. That is how an extension roof was delivered on a renovation at Kettering, and how a full conversion at Ramsey ran with the carpentry, brickwork and plumbing all project managed by one company.
Proof
A town hall and a village hall.
Stoke Ferry Village Hall
A full strip back and replace of the roof on a Norfolk village hall, finished with a brand new trussed roof and sequenced around the hall's booking schedule to keep the building usable.
Related roofing services: hand cut roofs, flat roofs, warm roofs and GRP, or back up to roofing carpentry.
Common questions
Roof repair and alteration questions
Do you repair roof structures or only build new ones?
Both. Structural repair and alteration on existing roofs is a large part of our roofing work. At Bourne Town Hall we took on twelve roof adaptations and alterations across a building with eleven separate roofs, and at Stoke Ferry Village Hall in Norfolk a full strip back and replace of the roof was completed and finished with a brand new trussed roof.
Can you alter a roof to carry something new?
Yes. On the front elevation at Bourne Town Hall the clock tower support works look like a simple ply finish, but behind it sits a complex build up of steels and timber engineered to carry a new five metre clock. Alterations to carry plant, rooflights, dormers or a new load are worked from the engineer's details.
Do you carry out a roof inspection first?
On larger jobs, yes. Roof inspections were carried out at Bourne Town Hall ahead of the re-roof and re-structure so the scope was known before anyone committed to a programme. On domestic work a free site visit does the same job and comes with a written estimate.
Can you work on a building that is still in use?
Yes. The Stoke Ferry Village Hall roof was replaced around the hall's booking schedule to keep disruption to the community down, and the Bourne Town Hall roof works ran across a live 16 month renovation with a new theatre and cafe being fitted out below.
Do you re-cover the roof as well as repair the structure?
Yes. We fit felt, batten and tile under our roof on and roofed in package, and fitted a new slate roof at Alford Manor House to get that building water tight for the interior fit-out. On flat roofs, a 68 square metre GRP covering was stripped off and re-installed at Ramsey.
Is my roof a repair or a re-roof?
That depends on how far the damage has travelled. Localised rot in rafter feet or a wall plate is a repair. Widespread deflection, failed timbers across a slope or a structure that was never right is usually a strip back and replace, which is what Stoke Ferry Village Hall needed. A free site visit will tell you which one you are looking at before you spend anything.
Roof gone wrong?
Free site visit, honest answer on repair versus replacement, written estimate either way.