Dry-ridge vs mortar roof on Victorian House

jpcamps

Hi – I’m trying to organise a few quotes for a complete re-roof.

 

My house is a Victorian building with Staffordshire Blue clay tiles. With the new roof, I believe there are two main types (but please forgive my total ignorance here), dry-ridge (likely more expensive upfront but saves on ongoing maintenance costs) and mortar-based (likely cheaper upfront but will have ongoing maintenance costs).

 

Is someone able to answer my questions, below, as I’m getting really confused about what is best?

 

Dry-ridge – will it be possible to keep the traditional look of the roof whilst using a dry-ridge system? This is the most important thing for me as I don’t want to make the house look silly with a Victorian building and “modern” looking roof if it would look “modern”.

Mortar-based – how often are we likely to require maintenance on a mortar-based roof? Especially bigger jobs that will require scaffolding. Can small issues be fixed by climbing a ladder, or will scaffolding be required in all instances? As you can imagine, I’m just trying to gauge what the likely ongoing costs are going to be.

 

I've had a couple of quotes already. One roofer mentioned it would be hard to get the traditional look using dry-ridge and the other said it would look fine with dry-ridge. 

Thanks in advance.

Jpcamps

TELLIT01

A search on Google shows that Victorian style dry ridge tiles are available.

I also found this which suggests BC may require dry ridge although it is a bit ambiguous. I say it's ambiguous because I don't know whether a complete re-roof will be classed as a new roof.

"Is dry ridge any good ? In a word yes. In fact they are now a building control requirement on all new roofs since BS 5534 was introduced, although repairs to existing roofs are exempt, as are some listed and period properties under the right conditions."

fenwick458

dry ridge seems so much better , if it lasts like they say it should anyway.... who knows in 20 years the plastic might start perishing and it'll fall to bits?
I've had a few roofs done and 6-7 years ago dry ridge seemed to be more expensive option(£100-150 not much) but now it seems like it's the roofers preferred option and they will do both for same price, at your choice, now they have figured out how to fit it and realised it's quicker and easier than mixing mortar and carting buckets up to the ridge and then cleaning up afterwards.

jpcamps

TELLIT01 said:

A search on Google shows that Victorian style dry ridge tiles are available.

I also found this which suggests BC may require dry ridge although it is a bit ambiguous. I say it's ambiguous because I don't know whether a complete re-roof will be classed as a new roof.

"Is dry ridge any good ? In a word yes. In fact they are now a building control requirement on all new roofs since BS 5534 was introduced, although repairs to existing roofs are exempt, as are some listed and period properties under the right conditions."

Thanks, yeah, I had already checked Google and found the same ambiguity as you. Whilst there are dry-ridge clay tiles, this doesn't necessarily mean it is going to look the same as the traditional mortar-based method. 

fenwick458 said:

dry ridge seems so much better , if it lasts like they say it should anyway.... who knows in 20 years the plastic might start perishing and it'll fall to bits?
I've had a few roofs done and 6-7 years ago dry ridge seemed to be more expensive option(£100-150 not much) but now it seems like it's the roofers preferred option and they will do both for same price, at your choice, now they have figured out how to fit it and realised it's quicker and easier than mixing mortar and carting buckets up to the ridge and then cleaning up afterwards.

Thanks, yeah I agree that dry-ridge is going to be functionally better. However, my main concern is that it looks right. I'm happy to have mortar if dry-ridge doesn't look right and it's not going to be massively expensive with ongoing maintenance.  

ka7e

My neighbour has recently had dry-ridge fitted and the black fastenings look horrible against terracotta tiles. But it is a bungalow so the ridges are really obvious from street level - they would probably not be so visible on a 2-storey house.

If this is your "forever" home and you will be there for 30 years plus, maintenance with mortar might be an issue, but realistically how often does it need attention? I would be just as concerned with the longevity of plastic fittings exposed to the elements.