Flat roofing in Ashley
Flat roofs repaired and re-covered across Ashley and the BH25 addresses, in EPDM rubber, GRP fibreglass, felt and single ply.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
A flat roof that has split or lifted at an upstand is usually a repair rather than a new roof. What settles it is the deck underneath, so we lift a corner and look before anyone talks about taking the lot off.
Three things bring people in Ashley to the phone. A stain has come through a garage ceiling or the back bedroom. Water is standing on the roof days after the rain stopped. Or the felt has gone hard and cracked at the edges and you want to know whether it will see another winter. All three want somebody up there with a knife rather than a guess from the pavement. We walk the roof, open a lap where we need to, and photograph what we find. If a patch will do, we will say so.
The work
Garage roofs, extensions and the flat bit at the back
Garages and outbuildings. The commonest flat roof here and usually the oldest. Most were laid in torch on felt, a built up three layer job finished with a mineral cap sheet, and once that has gone brittle the laps open and the sheet splits along the edge. A sound deck can be stripped and re-laid. A soft one cannot, and no photograph tells you which you have.
Extensions and the link between two pitched roofs. An extended bungalow nearly always has a flat section over the back, often with a narrow link where the new roof meets the old. Those we re-cover in EPDM rubber, one sheet with bonded seams, or in GRP fibreglass laid wet over the deck so there are no joints at all. Single ply suits a larger or awkward shape, welded rather than glued.
The deck, the falls and the insulation. Lift a corner and you find plywood, OSB, or chipboard that has swollen and let go of the joists. Firrings are the tapered timbers that give a roof its falls, and where nobody fitted any, the water sits. On a warm roof the PIR goes above the deck with a vapour control layer sealed under it, keeping the timbers out of reach of the dew point. On a cold roof the insulation sits between the joists and the space above it has to breathe, or you get condensation and interstitial damp in the decking rather than a leak. BS 6229 is where all of that comes from.
What actually fails. Ponding and standing water at a blocked rainwater outlet. Blisters and bubbles where damp got trapped under the membrane. A split across an old felt roof, a crack at a kerb, a lifted upstand behind a rooflight, or a failed seam where a welded or bonded lap has crept. Edges are the other half: edge trim, the drip over the fascia, and the apron where the roof runs into a wall.
Openings, abutments and where the water goes. A rooflight, a lantern or an old Velux sits on a kerb that has to be built up, insulated and dressed so the membrane runs over it, and the same goes for a soil pipe or a vent pipe through the deck. Where the roof meets brickwork we cut a chase and dress in a lead cover flashing rather than running mastic along it, and on a parapet the coping and the cavity tray get looked at too. Then the outlet, the hopper, the gutter and the downpipe, because a flat roof with nowhere to drain is a tank.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Same team from first visit to last, one person to ring, and no sub-contracting your work out to somebody you have never met. The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: access, stripping the old covering, any new deck or firrings, the insulation, the membrane and each upstand, outlet and edge trim, and disposal on separate lines, so you can compare it properly against anyone else's.
Nothing is left open or unusable overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up once we start that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.
Re-covering in the same materials is maintenance, so there is no planning permission to get and it sits inside ordinary permitted development, with Planning Portal guidance setting out where that stops. Take the covering off most of a flat roof, though, and you are renovating a thermal element: notifiable work, with the insulation brought up to the Part L standard in Approved Document L. No conservation area covers Ashley, so for most addresses there is nothing to apply for.
Cost
What decides the price of a flat roof
No rate per square metre, because the square metres are the easy part and what is under the covering is what decides the job.
Getting to it. A bungalow garage, a rear extension behind a chalet bungalow and the roof over a porch are three different jobs before a roll comes off the van. A garage or a single storey extension will often come off a tower, anything above a two storey wall wants a scaffold, and the platform has to stand while the deck is open rather than for an afternoon. The work at height rules are why it is a priced line rather than something folded into a rate.
The deck under the covering. A sound deck can be re-covered. Chipboard that has been wet for years, or ply that gives underfoot, has to come off and be replaced, and you cannot tell which you have from the ground or from a photograph. We lift a corner before quoting, because the deck is the single biggest swing in the price.
The falls, and where the water is meant to go. Most flat roofs that fail were never laid to a fall, or the fall runs at an outlet that has since been blocked or built over. Correcting it with firrings is more work than laying a membrane and it is the difference between a roof that lasts and one that ponds. Upstands, edge trims and each outlet are priced one at a time, because that is where the hours and the leaks both are.
Comparing quotes? Ask which system is being quoted and how many layers, whether the deck is being renewed or covered over, whether the falls are being corrected with firrings, how the upstands, outlets and edge trims are detailed, and whether the scaffold and the skip are in the price. Two quotes for the same job are usually two different jobs.
If it is coming through
Water through a flat roof
Ring rather than use the form. A flat roof that has split, blistered or lifted at an upstand puts water straight onto a ceiling, and once the deck is wet the damage carries on after the rain stops. The first visit is about getting it covered and dry, and we price the permanent job once we can see how much of the deck has gone. Ashley is a straight run out for us, so anything letting water in gets an emergency cover, normally on the same day or the next. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Bungalow country, and what that does to a flat roof
Ashley is bungalow country, and an extended bungalow almost always ends up with a flat roof somewhere: over the back room, over the garage, or as the link that ties an extension into the original hip. So the work here is rarely one big area. It is three or four small ones, each with its own falls, its own outlet and its own upstand against a wall.
Two things follow. Access is cheap, because nearly all of it sits at single storey height and a tower will do rather than a scaffold standing for a fortnight. And the money is in the edges rather than the middle, since a small roof has almost as much upstand, trim and abutment as a big one. So compare quotes on how those are described, not on the area, and think about doing the lot in one visit while the access is up.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Ashley, Bashley, Fernhill and the BH25 addresses either side of the main road, and New Forest District Council is the authority for anything that does need an application. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can look up in a minute. Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the one who comes out to price the job, not a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are both free.
Questions
Ashley questions we get asked
Can you patch it, or does the whole roof have to come off?
Often a patch will do. A split, a lifted lap or a blister in a sound covering is cut out and welded or bonded back in. What rules a patch out is a soft deck, so we lift a corner on the free site visit and tell you which you have.
How long does a flat roof take?
A garage roof is usually a day. An extension with a new deck, firrings, insulation and a rooflight to re-form runs to two or three working days. GRP fibreglass wants a dry deck and some warmth to cure, where EPDM rubber and single ply go down in weather that stops it.
Which is better, rubber, fibreglass or felt?
It depends on the roof. EPDM suits a simple rectangle, because it goes down as one sheet with almost no seams. GRP suits a roof with kerbs and detail, because it is laid wet and takes any shape. A modern torch on felt is still a good roof on a big garage.
Do I need building control for a new flat roof?
Usually yes, where the covering is renewed over most of the roof, because that counts as renovating a thermal element. It is not a planning matter, but it has to be notified and the insulation has to reach the standard.
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Tell us the address and what you have noticed. We will come out, look at the deck, and put an itemised price in writing. No charge, and no obligation.