Portland Bill Lighthouse
The red-and-white 41m lighthouse at the southern tip of Portland first shone in 1906; its visitor centre offers tours up 153 steps.
Learn more about Portland Bill Lighthouse on Google MapsRoofers In Portland
Has the last blow off the Channel left your Portland roof rattling?
Slate, stone slate and tile roofs on the Isle fixed to stay put when the wind gets up
We work as roofers on Portland most weeks, and the island asks more of a roof than anywhere else we cover. The Met Office station here averages 14.3 knots of wind across the year, against a UK figure of 9.27, yet the rain total is a modest 672mm or so. The catch is timing. Most of that rain arrives in the gusty months, driven sideways into laps and flashings rather than falling politely onto them. From the stepped cottages of Fortuneswell and Castletown to the 1960s bungalows at Southwell, we fix and re-roof with the wind in mind: mechanical fixings where a nail or clip belongs, and leadwork dressed to stay down.
Free Roofing Quote In Portland
Tell us a little about the roof and we will call you back.
About Portland
Stone walls, Welsh slate and a great deal of weather
Portland is really two places. Underhill takes in Chiswell, Fortuneswell and Castletown, built into a steep escarpment of Portland Sand over Kimmeridge Clay, so streets climb in terraces and one house's gutter can sit level with the next one's doorstep. Tophill is the gentler plateau that falls from about 151 metres near the Verne down to the Bill, with Easton, Weston, Wakeham, Southwell and the Grove spread across it. Both halves are open to the weather in a way that mainland Weymouth, tucked in behind Chesil Beach, simply isn't.
Most of the older houses are single-fronted stone cottages from the late 18th to the mid 19th century. Their walls are local stone and their roofs mostly Welsh slate, though some still carry the island's own stone slates, and the earliest were pitched steeply at about 45 degrees. Add the Haylands estate at Weston from the late 1960s, the Southwell bungalow estates and Sweethill from 2002-03, and you have three quite different roofing jobs within a couple of miles. A slate cottage in Wakeham and a tiled bungalow off Sweethill fail in different ways, so we treat them differently.
1,000+
Roofing projects completed
5★
Every review we have is five stars
10 yrs
Guarantee on roof replacements
Free
Roof surveys and written quotes
The roofing work Portland keeps us busy with
Roof Repairs
Slates lifted by a winter gale, ridges that have shed their mortar and leaks that only show in sideways rain, found and fixed from Chiswell down to Portland Bill.
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Roof Replacement
When a slate roof in Easton or Fortuneswell is past patching, we strip it, renew battens and membrane, and fix every course to stand up to Tophill exposure.
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Lead Work
Flashings, soakers and chimney aprons on island stone cottages take a beating. We dress lead tight against the stone so wind-driven rain has nowhere to creep in.
Learn more about lead work in Portland →More services in Portland
Why a Portland roof needs fixing for wind first
Rainfall on the island is low by UK standards, so the damage we see is mostly about wind and what the wind does to rain. Each point below follows from that.
Uplift on open Tophill roofs
Weston, Easton and the Grove sit on open ground with nothing to break a south-westerly. Slates and tiles held only at the head can be levered up at the tail, so we add fixings where the exposure calls for them instead of trusting weight alone.
Rain that travels sideways
November brings more than twice July's rainfall on Portland, and it tends to arrive with a gale behind it. That pushes water uphill under laps and behind flashings, so we check head laps, underlay and abutments, not just whether a slate has cracked.
Steep Underhill streets
Houses in Fortuneswell and Castletown step down the slope, which means scaffold often has to stand on a gradient or on the pavement. We plan access properly from the outset, so the job doesn't stall on day one.
Welsh slate and island stone slate
The RCHME inventory recorded most Portland roofs in Welsh slate, with some local stone slates still about. The two need different nails, battens and handling, and we keep salvaged stone slates where we can rather than swapping in something that looks wrong.
Ridges that meet the current standard
Under BS 5534, ridge and hip tiles have to be mechanically fixed, and a mortar bed on its own no longer counts. On roofs that face the wind the way Portland's do, that change matters more than almost anywhere else in the county.
Postwar estates with their own faults
Plenty of the late-1960s houses at Haylands and the 1960s bungalows around Southwell are at the age where original felt underlay turns brittle. Felt in that state flaps and tears in gusts, so we look beneath the tiles as carefully as at them.
"Most of the leaks we're called to on Portland turn up after a big south-westerly, not after a wet week. Nine times out of ten the water has been blown in at a flashing or under a lifted slate rather than coming through a broken one."
Our guarantee
Ten years on a new roof, written down and signed
When we replace a roof in Portland, the paperwork you're handed at the end will, on all but a handful of unusual jobs, include a 10 year guarantee on the work. If yours is one of the exceptions, you'll know at quote stage, not after. It names your address, says what was done and is dated the day we sign the roof off. It covers the installation itself, meaning the battens, membrane, fixings, the slates or tiles and the junctions where the roof meets walls and chimneys. If any of that lets water in through a fault in how it went on, we come back and fix it without charging you.
A guarantee that long only makes sense if the roof is built properly underneath, so it shapes the job from day one. Every slate or tile is mechanically fixed to the current British Standard rather than relying on its own weight, which matters on a stretch of coast where the wind arrives with nothing in its way. Breathable membrane goes on before the battens. Valleys, abutments and chimneys get proper lead or a tested dry-fix system, never a smear of mortar that cracks in its third winter.
Materials carry their own manufacturer cover on top, and that differs from product to product. Your paperwork says which one applies to your roof.
10
Year guarantee on roof replacements
1,000+
Roofing projects completed
Signed paperwork at handover, with photos of the roof taken before, during and after.
Our process
How we run a roofing job on Portland
- 1
We come and look
A free survey made on the roof itself, not from the road. On Portland we also note which way the house faces and how exposed it sits, because that decides how the slates and ridges need fixing.
- 2
You get it in writing
An itemised quote listing each repair or material, the fixings we'll use and the cost of access. If your house is in one of the island's four conservation areas, we spell out what that means for the job.
- 3
Scaffold on a slope
Underhill streets are steep and narrow in places, so scaffold is designed around the gradient. Where it has to stand on the pavement or road, we work out the layout before anything arrives.
- 4
Strip back and look properly
We take off whatever has failed and examine what sits beneath it: battens, felt, rafters and the wall heads of the stonework. Anything unexpected gets photographed and talked through with you before we carry on.
- 5
Build it back to hold
Slates go back on the right nails or hooks, ridges are mechanically fixed, and lead is dressed and clipped so gusts can't lift its edges. Salvaged stone slates are reused wherever they're still sound.
- 6
Check the weather side twice
Before the scaffold comes down we go over every course, flashing and gutter outlet, paying most attention to the south-west slope, where Portland's gales will test the work first.
- 7
Leave it tidy
Old slate, offcuts and nails are cleared from gardens, yards and steps. Then we walk you round the finished roof with photos of what we did and anything we came across along the way.
What to do in Portland
Portland Castle
Henry VIII artillery fort built from Portland stone between 1539 and 1541 to guard Portland Roads.
Learn more about Portland Castle on Google Maps
Tout Quarry Sculpture Park
Disused quarry on Tophill turned sculpture park and nature reserve, with works carved into Portland stone since 1983.
Learn more about Tout Quarry Sculpture Park on Google MapsFind us working in Portland
Reviews
What customers around Portland say
More than a thousand roofing jobs finished, and every review customers have left us is five stars.
Those reviews are on their way onto this page. Until they land, ask us for photos of recent jobs near you in Portland when we come out to quote - seeing a finished roof on a house like yours tells you more than any star rating.
Roofing prices in Portland
Access is usually the biggest variable on Portland. A bungalow in Southwell can often be reached with a tower or a short scaffold, while a tall house on a Fortuneswell slope may need stepped scaffold standing on the pavement. Reusing or sourcing stone slate costs more than fitting new Welsh slate, and conservation areas may call for matching materials. Repairs typically run from £150 to £1,500, and full re-roofs from £7,000 upwards.
Questions from Portland homeowners
Do I need planning permission to re-roof a house on Portland?
Dorset Council is the planning authority, and Portland Town Council can comment on applications. Re-roofing like for like, in materials that look the same, generally doesn't need permission. Portland has four conservation areas: Underhill (covering Chiswell, Maidenwell, Fortuneswell and Castletown), Grove, Portland (Easton, Wakeham and Reforne) and Weston. Inside them, changing the look of a roof, say from slate to concrete tile, is far more likely to need consent. Southwell is the only village outside all four. Listed buildings need listed building consent, and the Portland Neighbourhood Plan, made in 2021, also applies, so we check your address before quoting.
Why does my roof on Portland leak when it hasn't rained much?
Because the rain that does fall usually comes with a strong wind behind it. The island gets only about 58% of the UK's average rainfall, but its mean wind speed is about 54% above the UK mean. Gale-driven water gets pushed under slate laps, behind cracked flashings and round chimneys that would stay dry in still rain. Finding the entry point often means looking well above and upwind of the damp patch.
Can you match the stone slates on an old cottage?
Often, yes. Where a roof still carries local stone slates we keep every sound one, sort them by size and relay them in diminishing courses. Finding matching stone for broken ones is harder and dearer, and we'll tell you honestly what's achievable. We don't do thatch, so if part of a cottage is thatched you'll need a thatcher for that section.
Do you cover the whole of Portland, including the Bill?
Yes. We're about 15 minutes from Fortuneswell and roughly 20 from Easton, and we work right across Tophill and Underhill, from Chiswell and Castletown to Weston, Southwell and the houses out towards the Bill.
Areas we cover from Portland
- Roof Repairs Dorchester
- Roof Replacement Dorchester
- Roof Repairs Portland
- Roof Replacement Portland
- Roof Repairs Chickerell
- Roof Replacement Chickerell
- Roof Repairs Bridport
- Roof Replacement Bridport
- Roof Repairs Wareham
- Roof Replacement Wareham
- Roof Repairs Wool
- Roof Replacement Wool
- Roof Repairs Swanage
- Roof Replacement Swanage
- Roof Repairs Upton
- Roof Replacement Upton
Tell us what the wind has done to your roof
Send a few details or a photo and we'll arrange a free survey anywhere on Portland, then give you a written, itemised price you can hold us to.