Along the outskirts of the beautiful and welcoming market town of Bovey Tracey are a selection of lovely new homes, this is one of them.

We met with our clients around a year prior to completing the project with an entirely different objective. Our clients were unfortunately faced with a roof that was completely inadequate and failing just 6 years post build. We were asked to repair two dormers situated on the front facing elevation due to failure. After ensuring all eventualities were accounted for and put into writing, we were tasked with giving this wonderful house the roof it had always deserved.

After discovering a plethora of issues with the modern and problematic designs, our clients made the decision to replace the roof with natural slate and lead. Something that will last and ultimately do the job in such an exposed location neighbouring the moor.

The two dormers were replaced with some Polyurethane Velux units, which actually let more daylight in to the top floor rooms and was much more preferable for our clients needs. The three roof windows on the rear elevation had been installed poorly and could not be salvaged so we're replaced for polyurethane Velux units also.

The roof has a whopping 47 degree pitch and is a gable to gable detached home. The roof seems fairly simple in its construction (it should have been) however, the timber frame was incredibly warped and wonky, leaving us with a challenge on our hands. We were able to overcome many of the issues with meticulous grading of slate and packing sections of the roof to ensure we wouldn't mirror the problems to the roof covering.

The existing verge design was plastic and installed incorrectly with severe warping and deformation occurring. The man made roof tiles were all kicking and chattering out from the plastic. We opted to install a ranger course of slate, cloaking the underside of the slate verge. This small detail alone completely transformed the appearance of the two gables and is much more in keeping with the beautiful heritage of Bovey Tracey. We installed timber batten to the concrete wall to enable our slate to have an adequate fixing. In doing so, this allowed us to secure the roof battens at the verges where previously they were hanging over the cavity with complete freedom to move with the roof covering.

We finished the new roof with a Code 6 Lead ridge, secured with some Code 7 Lead strapping.

Our clients opted for some Lead Bee motifs to adorn the two block end cloaks.

We're extremely pleased with how the project turned out and enjoyed transforming this house from zero to hero!