Flat roofing in Bashley
Garage, porch and sun room roofs across Bashley, Wootton and Tiptoe, looked at from the roof and priced in writing.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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On a Bashley bungalow the flat roof is nearly always the garage, the porch or a back extension, and it is nearly always reachable off a tower. That keeps the access cheap and the job short.
Two homes in five in Bashley are bungalows, so the flat roof is rarely the main roof. It is the bit over the garage, the utility, the porch or the sun room, and it is usually the oldest covering on the property. The signs are a ceiling stained under it or felt gone grey and split at a lap, and it is worth a straight answer about the flat section whenever the pitched roof is being looked at anyway.
We get up and look rather than price off a photograph. That means lifting a corner where we safely can, checking the outlet, and getting into the space below. If the ceiling under the garage or sun room is actually dripping, ring 07435 839745 and say it is a leak, not a quote.
What we take on
What comes off a bungalow, and what goes back
The deck comes first. Nothing sensible can be decided about a Bashley 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 in Bashley 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 checked as part of the same job.
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.
How it runs
A garage, porch or sun room roof, step by step
Thomas looks at the roof from a ladder and, where it is safe, lifts an edge to see the deck. In Bashley most flat roofs sit over a detached garage, a porch, a sun room behind a bungalow or an outbuilding.
On the quote you will see the access, the strip of the old felt, deck repairs or replacement, firrings to correct the falls, insulation, the new membrane, then each upstand, outlet and edge trim, and the skip. Each item is priced as its own line.
Plots in Bashley are usually big enough for a tower and a skip on the drive. A porch roof can often be done from steps, a garage from a tower. The deck is never left open overnight; if the job runs on, it is sheeted and weighted. We sweep up each day and take the old covering away. If the timber under the covering has rotted, you will see a photograph of it with a cost beside it before we replace anything.
Planning here sits with the National Park Authority. Re-covering in the same material is maintenance and needs no application, and the Authority's own guidance covers changes to how the building looks. Once a covering is renewed right across, the roof becomes a controlled thermal element under Approved Document L, so the insulation is upgraded at the same time and a building notice goes to New Forest District Council, as the regulations require, even though planning does not apply. There is no conservation area over Bashley.
Cost
Deck, falls and edges on Bashley's flat roofs
We do not quote a flat roof in Bashley by the square metre. The covering is the easy part, and what sits under it decides the job. Getting to it. A detached garage on a drive, a porch roof you can reach from steps and a sun room at the back of a bungalow are different jobs before anything comes off.
A garage will often need only a tower, while anything against a two storey wall wants scaffold. The platform has to stay up while the deck is open, and because of the work at height rules it is priced separately.
The deck. Garages in Bashley from the nineties often have chipboard decks. Chipboard that has been wet for years sags and has to be replaced, and ply that flexes underfoot is the same. We lift a corner before we quote, because the deck is the biggest swing in the price.
The falls. Plenty of flat roofs fail because they were never laid to a fall, or because the water runs to an outlet now choked with leaves from nearby trees. Correcting it with firrings is more work than laying the membrane, but it stops the roof ponding; a roof that ponds fails early. Upstands, edge trims and outlets are priced one at a time.
The system. Felt, single ply and liquid coatings all price differently, and the number of layers changes it again.
Put these to any other roofer: which system, how many layers, is the deck being replaced or just overlaid, are firrings included, and are the tower and the skip in the price.
If it is coming through
A flat roof that has split or lifted at the edge
If water is coming through, put a bucket down and move anything valuable. If the ceiling is sagging, stay out of the room. Then call us. Do not fill in the form. A split, a blister or a lifted upstand lets water into the deck, and the deck keeps soaking long after the rain stops.
We start by getting it covered and dry, and on a low bungalow or garage roof that cover can usually go on without waiting for a platform. The full repair is priced once the extent of wet deck is clear. Scheduled hours are Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, and if we are on a roof when you ring, we call back once we are down.
Worth knowing
Much of it is single storey, and that changes the price
About two homes in five around Bashley are bungalows, and that makes a real difference to a flat roofing quote. On those, the work is one storey up.
That usually means a mobile tower or an edge protection system rather than a full scaffold, it means the platform stands for days rather than weeks, and it means we can get materials up and rubbish down without a hoist. On a two storey house the access can be a serious part of the cost. On a bungalow it rarely is.
The other half of it is that you can see the roof. Stand in the garden and you are looking almost across a bungalow's flat roof, so ponding, a lifted seam or a trim that has pulled is visible long before it comes through a ceiling. Take a photograph in the wet and another two days later. If the water is still there, tell us when you ring, because a roof that holds water is a falls problem and not a covering problem, and the two are priced differently.
Who you are dealing with
Flat roofs priced by the owner of the firm
From Boscombe, where our base is, the drive to Bashley is roughly eight and a half miles. We cover flat roofs across Bashley, Wootton, Tiptoe, Sway and the New Milton edge. For planning you are under the New Forest National Park Authority, and for building control, New Forest District Council.
Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is the registered company, in England and Wales, number 15471719. The firm is Thomas Hannen's; he gets up to look at the deck and prices the job himself. One verified Checkatrade customer scored us 10 out of 10. There is no charge for the site visit, nor for the written quote listing every item. Before you book a visit in Bashley, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Bashley?
Most repairs in Bashley 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.
| Question | In Bashley |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Bashley. New Forest National Park Authority's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Bashley, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Bashley. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the New Forest National Park, where design is looked at more closely and permitted development rights are narrower. |
Questions
Questions about flat roofs in Bashley
Can you repair a garage roof instead of replacing it?
Usually yes. If the felt is still flexible and the failure is at a lap, a seam or an upstand, we cut it out and let a new piece in. What we will not do is cover a deck that has gone soft, because the new covering then sits on something that moves under your feet.
How long will a bungalow flat roof take?
A single garage is normally a day. A sun room or a back extension needing a new deck and firrings to correct the falls is two or three working days. We will not strip a deck we cannot make watertight the same day, so the forecast decides the start date.
Do I need permission in the National Park?
Not for a like for like re-cover, which counts as maintenance. The New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Bashley, and it is worth a call to them before you change the covering to something that reads differently, or add a rooflight where the roof is visible.
Water is sitting on my flat roof days after rain. Is that normal?
No, pooling means the roof has no fall left or the outlet is blocked. It will not put water through a sound covering on its own, but ponding holds grit and moss against the surface and it is where a split starts. The fix is firrings or tapered insulation, not another coat.
Will you need a scaffold on a bungalow?
Often not: most single storey work here comes off a tower with proper edge protection, which is quicker to put up and cheaper to leave standing. Where the flat roof runs up against a two storey wall we will price a scaffold, and it will be on the quote as its own line.
Nearby, and next door
Flat roofing near Bashley
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Get a price for your Bashley flat roof
Tell us the address and what you have noticed. We will get up, lift a corner where we can and put an itemised price in writing. No charge, and no obligation.