Roof Repairs in Monkstown

The grand terraces along Longford Terrace and Montpelier Parade drain through lead box gutters hidden behind the parapets. When the lead splits or the outlet blocks, water backs up and comes through a top-floor ceiling long before you see anything from the street, so these gutters are the first thing we check on a Monkstown leak.

Monkstown sits right on the bay, and the salt shortens the life of the iron slate nails. Slates start to slide and drop as the fixings rust through, and once it shows across the whole slope a re-roof on non-corroding nails works out better value than repairing it every winter.

The tall brick stacks along Monkstown Crescent and The Hill sit on the party walls between houses. Perished mortar, cracked flaunching and salt-worn lead flashing let damp track down into both homes, so the stack and its lead are a common source of a Monkstown roof leak.

The larger period houses around Carrickbrennan Road and Brighton Vale carry heavy slate roofs on timber well over a century old. A dip in the ridge is worth catching early, while sound timber can still be kept and strengthened rather than replaced wholesale.