Flat roofing in Bere Regis

Flat roofs in Bere Regis fail in a few ways. Felt goes brittle and splits along a crease or a lap. Blisters form where damp has been shut in under the covering. A failed seam at an upstand lets water behind the whole roof rather than through one hole. And ponding, water standing in the same corner weeks after the rain, is usually a blocked outlet or a fall that was never there.

What goes back on. EPDM rubber for a plain rectangle, laid in a single sheet so there is no lap to argue with later. GRP fibreglass where there is shape to work round, because the upstands and kerbs are laminated in one with the deck. Torch on felt where a three layer built up system with a mineral cap sheet suits the building better. Single ply, hot air welded, not bonded, on the bigger areas.

The deck decides the job. Old decking is plywood, OSB or chipboard, and chipboard that has been wet for a season is finished. Underneath it the joists carry firrings, and the firrings are what create the fall to the rainwater outlet. A roof laid without one holds standing water for ever. Where re-firring is not practical we build the fall in tapered insulation. BS 6229 is the code the falls are set out from.

Where the insulation sits. Put it above the deck, over a vapour control layer and under the covering, and every bit of timber stays warm and dry. That is a warm roof, and PIR is what we use for it. Push the same insulation down between the joists and you have a cold roof, with the deck sitting on the wrong side of the dew point. Moist air from the room finds it, interstitial condensation forms where nobody can look, and the boards go soft from the top down. Part L asks for the upgrade whenever a covering over a heated room is renewed, and building control check it.

The fiddly bits. Where the roof dies into a wall, the flashing has to be cut in rather than stuck on. We rake out a chase, dress lead into it as a cover flashing, and on a cavity wall set a tray above so nothing runs down the inner leaf. A parapet gets its coping bedded and an apron under it. Anything coming through the roof stands on a kerb of its own: a rooflight, a lantern, a Velux style flat roof window, a hatch, a soil and vent pipe. The open sides turn over a drip trim, and the rainwater outlet feeds a hopper, a downpipe or the gutter. A garage is a day, a bigger extension two or three working days, and we say how long up front.

Nobody should price a flat roof by the square metre. The membrane is the quick part. What decides the bill is what it goes onto and how the water gets off it.

The deck. Chipboard that has soaked up a slow leak for years goes soft and has to be cut out. Ply that is sound can stay. Lifting a corner before quoting is how Thomas tells the two apart, because the deck is the largest single swing in the price.

Falls and outlets. A roof that ponds after rain was either laid flat or has settled. Putting the fall back with firrings is extra timber and time, and it matters more on this ground. Bere Regis sits on cohesive clay that shrinks and swells, so water tipped off a roof beside the house ends up at the foundations. Where the outlet discharges is part of the job, and Approved Document H sets how rainwater should be handled.

The edges. Upstands against an older wall, a lead flashing chased into soft mortar and each edge trim are priced one at a time, because that is where flat roofs leak.

Getting to it. A tower in an open garden goes up quickly. A scaffold over a conservatory or through a narrow side way takes longer, and the work at height rules make it a line of its own.

Put these to any other quote. Which system, EPDM, GRP or felt, and how many layers? Is the deck being replaced or covered over? Where does the water go once it leaves the roof?

Bere Regis has a lot of listed entries around it, and they are mostly the old cottages and farm buildings rather than the newer housing. If your house is one of them, the listing covers the whole building. That includes a flat roof over a back addition that nobody can see from the road, and it includes what the covering is made of.

In practice that means a change from felt to fibreglass or rubber is a change of material and wants consent before it happens, not after. It is free to apply for and it takes time, so it is worth starting the moment you know the roof is going. Where the original was lead, a lead flat usually goes back and the conversation is short. We will quote both ways and put the consent position in writing with the price, so nobody is guessing. If your house is not listed, none of this touches you and the covering is your choice.

From our base in Boscombe it is 17 miles to Bere Regis. We cover the village, Briantspuddle, Bloxworth, Winterborne Kingston and the BH20 addresses between the A35 and Wool, and Dorset Council is the authority for planning and building control.

The firm itself is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen owns the business and is the person who inspects the deck and writes your price. A verified customer rated 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 Bere Regis, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Bere Regis 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.