Flat roofing in Alderholt

Repairs come first. A split along a fold, a burst blister, a lifted seam at a lap or a loose edge trim is hours rather than days, and so is a blocked rainwater outlet, which sits behind more ceiling stains than any hole in the covering. We trace where water is getting in rather than patching where the stain shows. On a flat roof those are rarely the same place.

Re-covering a garage or an extension. Most flat roofs in Alderholt are single storey: a garage, a rear extension, a porch, a dormer cheek or the small roof over a bay. The old covering comes off and it goes back in whichever system suits. EPDM rubber is one bonded sheet with no seam across the field. GRP fibreglass is laid wet, cures into a single piece with its own trims and takes foot traffic. Torch on felt earns its place on a broken up roof, as a built up three layer system with a mineral cap sheet. Single ply is welded rather than bonded and suits larger roofs. A garage is two to three working days.

Deck, falls and the build up. Under the covering you find plywood, OSB or, on the older extensions in Alderholt, chipboard gone quietly soft. Sound decking can be covered over, anything that gives underfoot comes off, and the joists get checked while they are open. Ponding and standing water nearly always mean the roof was never laid to a fall, so we correct it with firrings or tapered insulation rather than laying a new covering over the same puddle. An old cold roof has the insulation between the joists and little stopping warm damp air reaching the underside of the deck, which is why so many rot from within. A warm roof puts rigid PIR above the deck with a vapour control layer under it, keeps the timber above the dew point and heads off interstitial condensation, which is what Approved Document L and BS 6229:2025 on flat roofs both point at.

Openings, abutments and rainwater. A rooflight, a lantern or a Velux wants a kerb built to suit it, not a hole cut and sealed, and so does a hatch, a soil pipe or a vent pipe. Where the roof meets the house wall it needs a good upstand with a cover flashing chased into the brickwork, an apron in lead where that is what is there, and a cavity tray if the wall never had one. Parapets and copings are part of the roof, because that is where they leak. Then the drip, the edge trim and the gutter, downpipe and hopper below.

Most flat roofs in Alderholt sit over a garage, a back extension or a dormer. Thomas comes out, gets up to look, and presses the deck with his foot to find the soft areas before he prices anything himself.

His quote separates the access, taking off the old felt or membrane, replacing any deck, firrings to put a fall back in, insulation, the new membrane, and each upstand, outlet and edge trim, with the skip at the bottom. The roof is stripped and re-covered under that one quote.

A garage beside the drive in Alderholt usually comes off a tower, and a dormer means scaffold. We open only as much deck as can be covered again before we leave, so the room below never spends a night under a tarpaulin, and the old covering goes on our van. Where the deck turns out wetter than expected, Thomas shows you on his phone and gives you the extra figure before anything changes.

Re-covering what is there needs no planning permission, as the Planning Portal confirms. Building control is another matter: re-cover over half of a roof above a heated room and the insulation must reach Approved Document L. Raising the roof or turning the garage into a room is building work too, and Dorset Council's building control will want a building notice or full plans. There is no conservation area in Alderholt, so on an ordinary house EPDM, GRP or felt is your pick. The village does have listed buildings, the Church of St James among them, so if yours is listed, ask first.

A flat roof that has split or blistered, or lifted where it meets a wall, lets water straight into the deck, and a wet deck keeps rotting long after the rain stops. Put a container under the drip, keep clear of any damp light fitting, and do not climb onto the roof to look.

When we come out, the aim is to get it dry, with a temporary seal or a sheet held down with timber, and the lasting repair is priced once we know how far the water has spread. Scheduled jobs run Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. With water coming through, ring. Do not fill in the form. A call that goes unanswered gets returned at the first chance we have.

A straight re-cover is a re-cover and none of this touches it. But a good few of the flat roofs around Alderholt sit over a garage somebody wants to turn into a bedroom or an annexe.

Alderholt drains into the River Avon catchment, a nutrient neutrality area, so a scheme adding overnight accommodation has to show it will not add nutrients to the river before permission is granted. It does not stop the work, but the planning side runs longer than the building side, so start it early.

What it changes on the roof is the specification. A garage roof only has to keep weather out. A roof over a room you sleep in has to meet Approved Document L, which means a warm roof: insulation above the deck, a vapour control layer under it, and the falls reset so nothing ponds over a plasterboard ceiling. That is a thicker build up than what is up there now, so the upstand height at the house wall and the clearance under a door threshold both want checking on the first site visit.

Nearby places we also cover for flat roofing, with straight-line distances from Alderholt, and the other trades we offer in Alderholt itself.

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