Flat roofing in Beacon Hill
Flat roof repairs, re-covering and warm roof build ups across Beacon Hill and the BH16 villages. Free site visit, free written itemised quote.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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A tired flat roof at Beacon Hill is usually re-covered rather than rebuilt. What settles it is the deck under the covering, not the state of the surface you can see, which is why we lift a corner before putting a price on anything.
A flat roof around Beacon Hill is most likely to sit over a garage, a rear extension or a porch, and an older covering there can be well past the age where it bends without cracking. Trouble usually surfaces as a ceiling that has stained after a run of wet days. The surface has gone brittle and opened along a fold or at a corner. Or there is a pool sitting up there that never quite dries out. We get on the roof, look at the falls and the outlets, get our head in the loft or the garage where we can, and photograph what we find so you are looking at the same thing we are. If that stain has turned into drips on the floor, ring 07435 839745 and we will start with the leak.
On the roof
Where the water actually gets in
The systems, and which one belongs on your roof. EPDM rubber comes as a single bonded sheet, so on a plain garage there is no seam across the field at all. GRP fibreglass is laid wet and cures into one piece with its trims, which is what we would put on anything that gets walked on.
Torch on felt is a built up three layer system with a mineral cap sheet, and it is still the sensible answer on a cut up roof with plenty of detail. Single ply is welded rather than bonded and comes into its own on the bigger spans. None of them is the best one. The roof decides.
The deck, and the falls across it. Lift the covering and you meet plywood, OSB or chipboard, and on a Beacon Hill roof of this age the chipboard is often the part that has failed. Sound decking gets covered over. Soft decking comes off and the joists get a look while they are open. Ponding and standing water mean the fall was never there or the outlet has been built over, and we put that right with firrings or tapered insulation rather than laying something new over the same dip. Where a roof is coming off anyway, we would rather rebuild it as a warm roof, with rigid PIR above the deck and a vapour control layer beneath it, because that keeps the timber above the dew point and stops the interstitial condensation that quietly rots a cold roof from the inside. That is the build up BS 6229:2025 on flat roofs and Approved Document L both point at.
Upstands, openings and abutments. Most leaks in Beacon Hill are not in the middle of the covering. They are at the upstand where the roof meets the house, at a lifted seam or lap, at a split over a fold, or around something coming through. A rooflight, a lantern or a Velux needs a kerb built for it. So does a hatch, a soil pipe or a vent pipe. Against the wall we want a proper upstand with a cover flashing chased in, an apron in lead where lead is already there, and a cavity tray where the wall never had one. Parapets and copings get checked as part of the roof.
Repairs, and the rainwater side. A burst blister, a split, a failed seam or a loose edge trim is an hours job, and so is clearing a blocked outlet, which causes more ceiling stains than any hole in the covering does. A garage or single storey extension is normally two to three working days to re-cover. While we are there the drip, the edge trim, the gutter, the hopper and the downpipe get checked, because a sound roof discharging into a broken gutter still soaks the wall below it.
How it runs
Stripping and relaying a garage or extension roof
A flat roof over a Beacon Hill garage or back extension is a short job with a lot of decisions in it. Thomas comes out, gets up on it and lifts an edge to see the deck before he writes anything down. His quote lists access, stripping the old felt, any new deck boards and firrings, the insulation, the membrane itself, and each upstand, outlet, drip and edge trim, with disposal as a line of its own.
The old covering comes off and the new one is laid under the one written quote. A single storey roof in Beacon Hill usually comes off a tower stood on the drive or in the garden. The roof is never left open overnight: if the deck is off at the end of the day, it goes back under a sheet. Old felt and boards are bagged and taken with us, and the ground below is swept before we leave. If the deck turns out rotten further in than anyone could see, Thomas sends you a photo and a price, and you decide before we go on.
Re-covering the roof you have is maintenance and needs no planning permission, as Planning Portal guidance explains. Renewing most of the covering counts as renovating the roof, so building control is told and the insulation has to reach Approved Document L. There is no conservation area in Beacon Hill, so unless the Historic England list names your own house, felt, EPDM rubber or GRP fibreglass is your choice. Dorset Council only comes into it for that notice, or if the space below becomes a room.
Cost
Deck, falls and upstands: what moves a flat roof quote
No flat roof we price is quoted by the square metre. Laying the new covering is the quick bit; the deck beneath and the edges round it are what take the days.
How we reach it. A detached garage in Beacon Hill with room for a tower beside it is the easy case. An extension you can only get to through a side gate means carrying every roll and every sheet of decking round by hand. A flat roof tucked between two pitched roofs, or sitting on top of a two storey wall, needs a scaffold that stays until the new deck is sealed, which is why the work at height rules give it a line of its own.
The deck. Chipboard or ply that has been soaking for years goes spongy and must be replaced. Lifting a corner before we quote tells us how much, and that one answer moves the price more than anything else.
Fall and drainage. Rainwater should run off to an outlet or a gutter. Where it sits in puddles, tapered firrings go under the new deck to create a slope. On the Beacon Hill clay, check where the outlet's downpipe discharges as well, because water poured by an extension's footings can shift them as the ground wets and dries.
The covering. Torch-on felt built up in layers, a one-piece EPDM membrane or a GRP fibreglass finish each suit different roofs, and each needs its own detailing at upstands and edge trims.
If you are weighing up another quote, check the system and number of plies, whether the deck is renewed, whether firrings are allowed for, and whether scaffold and skip are priced in.
If it is coming through
Water through the garage or extension ceiling
A flat roof that has split, blistered or pulled away at the wall upstand sends water onto the plaster below, and the boards of a soaked deck go on rotting long after the weather clears. Move anything valuable out from under it and put down a bucket.
Then ring us instead of using the form. The first visit gets the roof covered with a temporary patch or a weighted sheet, and checks how far the wet has spread into the deck. We price the proper repair once it has dried enough to see. Scheduled hours are Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. For water coming in, call; if we miss it, we ring you back the moment we can.
Worth knowing
Green Belt: it does not touch the roof, but it does touch the garage
Beacon Hill sits inside the Green Belt, and that catches people out in one specific way. Putting a new covering on an existing flat roof is maintenance and the designation has nothing to say about it.
Replacing the building underneath is a different matter, because a replacement outbuilding in the Green Belt is judged on whether it is materially larger than the one it replaces. So if the garage itself is tired, re-covering the roof on it is very often the quicker and simpler route than knocking it down and starting again.
The same applies if you have been told to put a pitched roof on instead. Changing a flat roof to a pitch alters the shape and the volume of the building and the way it looks from outside, so it is worth a call to the planners before anyone orders materials. other permissions you may require is a useful starting point. None of this stops the work. It just decides whether you are booking a roofer or booking a planning application, and we will tell you honestly which one you are looking at.
Who you are dealing with
Your flat roof, priced by the man who owns the firm
We come out to Beacon Hill from Boscombe, 9.8 miles, and cover the BH16 addresses around it towards Upton, Lytchett Matravers and Corfe Mullen. Dorset Council deals with any building control notice on a flat roof here.
Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is registered in England and Wales under company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen owns it, and he is the person who gets up on the roof, checks the deck and writes your price. One verified customer has scored us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. You pay nothing for the visit, or for the itemised written quote. Before you book a visit in Beacon Hill, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Beacon Hill?
Most repairs in Beacon Hill 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 Beacon Hill |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Beacon Hill. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Beacon Hill, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Nothing in Beacon Hill is on the statutory list, so listed building consent does not come into it. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Beacon Hill. |
Questions
Questions about flat roofs in Beacon Hill
How do I know if the deck has gone?
You usually cannot from the ground. Walk it and a failed deck feels spongy, and from inside you may see staining along a joist line. Neither is proof. That is why the site visit involves lifting a corner of the covering where we can, because the deck is the one thing that changes the price most.
Is EPDM better than fibreglass?
Neither is better, they suit different roofs. EPDM is a single sheet with no seam across the middle, so it is quick and clean on a plain rectangle. GRP fibreglass cures into one piece with its trims and takes being walked on, so it wins where there is a rooflight, a step or foot traffic.
Will you need to get inside the house?
Sometimes. If the flat roof is over a room instead of a garage we would like to see the ceiling and, where there is a void, look into it. Most of the survey happens outside, and for a garage or a porch there is often no need to come in at all.
Do you take the old roof away?
Yes. Stripped covering, wet decking and insulation all leave with us, and disposal is a line on the quote rather than a surprise at the end. The site gets swept at the end of each day, not at the end of the job, and nothing is left open overnight.
Nearby, and next door
Flat roofing near Beacon Hill
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Free quote
Get a price for your Beacon Hill flat roof
Tell us the address and what you have noticed. We will come out, look under the covering where we can, and put an itemised price in writing. No charge, and no obligation.