Flat roofing in Barton on Sea

The low roofs behind a bungalow. Bungalow country means a lot of flat roof per house: an attached garage, a sun lounge, a utility across the back, a porch, and the link between the house and an outbuilding.

Nearly all of it is torch on felt or an older built up three layer job with a mineral cap sheet, and a fair share has been over-coated once already. We strip a bay and look. Plywood and OSB that has stayed dry can be re-covered. Chipboard decking that has been wet is finished, and it goes in the skip with the old membrane before new boards are screwed to the joists. From there the sensible options are EPDM rubber, GRP fibreglass or a new torch on system, and on a long run single ply is worth pricing too.

Edges, not middles. This close to the water the wind does the damage, and it works at the perimeter. A loose edge trim, a drip that has pulled away from the fascia, an apron that was never dressed down properly, or a kerb around a rooflight is where a roof lets go. Felt shows a blister or a split, single ply shows a lifted or failed seam, fibreglass shows a crack at an internal angle. We fix the perimeter down properly, form the upstand behind the covering rather than in front of it, and weld or bond every lap and seam so the surface is continuous.

Falls and where the water goes. Ponding is the other half of the diary. Standing water on a low roof is usually a fall that was never laid, firrings that have been cut too shallow, or a rainwater outlet blocked with grit and moss. We reset the falls with firrings or tapered insulation so the water leaves at an outlet, which is what BS 6229:2025 on flat roofs asks for, and we run water through the gutter, hopper and downpipe afterwards to prove it.

Openings, abutments and the build up underneath. A rooflight, a lantern, a Velux, a loft hatch or a soil and vent pipe each needs a kerb and a collar, not a smear of sealant. Where it butts brickwork a cover flashing is chased in and dressed down in lead, and on a parapet the coping and the cavity tray behind it get looked at while the roof is open. Most of the older roofs in Barton on Sea are cold roofs, insulation between the joists and a dead void above, which is where condensation and interstitial damp start rotting the deck out of sight. A rebuild goes back as a warm roof. PIR is laid over the boards, the vapour control layer sits beneath the PIR, and the dew point ends up inside the insulation instead of in your timber.

We do not quote flat roofs by the square metre. The covering is the quick part. What is under it, and how the water gets off, decide the job.

The deck. A Barton on Sea bungalow garage from the sixties often has chipboard or old boarding under several layers of felt. Chipboard that has been damp for years, or ply that flexes when you stand on it, has to come off and be replaced, and you cannot tell that from the drive. We lift a corner before we price, because the deck is the biggest swing on the quote.

Falls and outlets. A roof laid dead flat ponds, and standing water finds every weak lap. Putting a fall back with firrings takes longer than laying the membrane, and it is what makes the new roof last. Each upstand, outlet and edge trim is priced on its own, because that is where the hours go and where leaks start.

Wind and salt. Barton's roofs take the south westerlies straight off the sea. The edge trims and the perimeter of the membrane carry the load in a gale, so the edge detail matters more here than inland, and plain steel fixings rust.

The platform. A garage off a tower, a sun lounge tight to the house and a first floor balcony on a block each need something different, and the work at height rules are why that is its own line.

Before you choose, ask the others what system they use and in how many layers, whether the deck is being replaced or overlaid, and whether firrings, scaffold and skip are all priced in.

You are a short walk from the water, and salt changes one thing on a flat roof: the metal. The membrane itself does not mind salt at all.

The aluminium edge trim, the fixings holding it, the screws in a rooflight kerb and the clips on a downpipe are what corrode, and they corrode from the cut edge inwards where nobody looks. Salt also keeps a surface damp between showers, so a Barton on Sea roof spends more of the year wet than an inland one does.

What that means for a roof in Barton on Sea is worth saying out loud before you compare quotes. Ask what the trim is made of and how it is fixed, because a cheap mill finish trim on the seaward side of the house will be chalky and loose long before the covering is tired. Ask how the perimeter is held down, since an exposed low roof takes far more wind uplift at its edge than in the middle. On the sheltered side of a bungalow none of this matters much. On the side facing the sea it decides how long the job lasts.

From Boscombe, where we are based, it is seven and a half miles to Barton on Sea. Garage and extension roofs in Becton, flat roofs on the roads down towards the cliff, and balconies on the Marine Drive blocks all fall to New Forest District Council for building control.

Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is the company, registered in England and Wales, number 15471719. The firm is Thomas Hannen's, and he gets up on the deck himself and writes your price. One verified Checkatrade customer scored the work 10 out of 10. Neither the site visit nor the itemised quote costs you anything. Before you book a visit in Barton on Sea, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Barton on Sea need no application at all. What decides whether a change to the outside of your house does is who the council is, whether a conservation area or a listing applies, and whether the place sits in a protected landscape.