Flat roofing in Bashley

Start with the deck. Nothing sensible can be decided about a bungalow flat roof until somebody knows what the covering is sitting on. Plywood and OSB usually survive. Chipboard does not: it drinks at the first split and swells, and the sag you can see from the garden is the board rather than the felt. We take up a corner on the visit, so the price is written against a known deck instead of a hopeful one.

Then the fall. A lot of these were laid dead level because it was quicker. Firrings on top of the joists put the slope back, or tapered insulation does the same work inside a warm roof, and either way the water ends up at the rainwater outlet. Ponding is not a leak, but a surface that never dries keeps grit and moss against the covering all winter, and that is where the split arrives. Standing water in one corner tells you the outlet has blocked or the fall now runs somewhere else, and a bubble underfoot is water already in the boards.

Then the covering. Where one thing has gone we repair it rather than strip the roof: a split along a lap, a blister lifted clear of the deck, a seam that has failed between two sheets. Felt is cut out, primed and welded back under a fresh cap sheet. A crack in GRP fibreglass is ground out and re-laminated. EPDM rubber is cleaned and bonded down again. On a re-cover, rubber suits a plain garage, one sheet with no joints across the field; fibreglass is formed in place where there is a kerb or an outlet to work round; a built up three layer torch on felt system is still a proper roof; single ply comes in on a wide span.

Then the edges. A bungalow keeps the upstand low, so how far the membrane is turned up matters. The abutment gets a lead cover flashing dressed into a chase, not a run of sealant. The front edge gets a drip and an apron to throw water clear. A parapet, a coping and a cavity tray are formed. Around a skylight, a lantern, a Velux, a hatch, a soil pipe or a vent pipe we make a collar. Then the gutter, the hopper and the downpipe, which are behind a surprising number of the leaks we get called to.

And the build up. Over a garage a ventilated cold roof is fine. Over a sun room the insulation belongs above the deck with the vapour control layer under it, which keeps the dew point out of the joists and stops the condensation and interstitial damp that look exactly like a leak from inside. PIR does that job in a warm roof, and BS 6229 sets out the detail. Half a day on a porch, a day on a garage, two or three working days on a sun room with a new deck.

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 detached garage on a drive, a porch roof you can reach off a step ladder and a sun room at the back of a bungalow are three different jobs before anything comes off. 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.

We cover Bashley, Wootton, Tiptoe, Sway and the New Milton edge of the BH25 postcode, and the site visit costs you nothing. 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.