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.
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.
The flat roofs around here came with the houses. Most of the village went up between the 1970s and the early 1980s, so what we find is a garage roof, a rear extension or a porch carrying its original covering, now well past the age where it bends without cracking. Three things bring people out to us. A ceiling 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.
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 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 here 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
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.
Putting a new covering on the roof you already have is maintenance. It falls inside permitted development, no planning permission is needed, and Planning Portal guidance marks the edge of that. Raising the roof, or making the space beneath it habitable, is where building control and Approved Document L arrive. Beacon Hill has no conservation area and no listed entries, so nothing dictates your choice of covering.
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. Picture a detached garage with the van alongside it, a rear extension reached through a side gate, and a flat section wedged between two pitched roofs. Three quite different days of work. 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. We are close by on this side of the A350, so a Beacon Hill roof letting water in usually gets seen within a day or two. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
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
A local firm you can check
We cover Beacon Hill, Lytchett Matravers, Upton, Corfe Mullen and the BH16 villages either side of the A350. 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
Beacon Hill questions we get asked
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 rather than 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 we often do not 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.
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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.