Flat roofing in Bournemouth
Garage roofs, extension roofs and dormers across Winton, Charminster and Queen's Park, 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.
Most Bournemouth flat roofs that let water in are failing at an upstand, an edge trim or an outlet rather than across the middle. That is usually a repair measured in hours, and we would rather price you that than sell you a roof you do not need.
People ring about a flat roof for one of three reasons. A stain has come through a ceiling under a garage, an extension or a dormer, and it arrived after the rain rather than during it. Or the covering looks tired: felt gone grey and brittle along the laps, fibreglass hairline cracked at a joint. Or water is still sitting up there days later and somebody has said that is normal. It is not.
We are a mile and a half away, so looking is easy to arrange. We lift a corner where we safely can, get into the room underneath, and photograph what we find.
The work
Garage roofs, extension roofs and dormer cheeks
Repairs come first, and most are small. A split at a lap, a blister that has lifted, a failed seam, or a trim worked loose in a gale. On torch on felt we cut the failed area out, prime it and weld in a patch under a fresh cap sheet. A crack along a joint in GRP fibreglass is ground back and re-laminated. A lifted seam in EPDM rubber is cleaned and bonded again. On a garage none of that is a day.
New coverings. Once a covering has gone brittle right across, patching stops being worth your money. EPDM rubber comes in one sheet with no joints across the field and suits a plain rectangle. GRP fibreglass is laid wet onto the deck and earns its keep where there are kerbs and openings to form. A built up three layer torch on felt system still does a lot of the garages here, and single ply belongs on the bigger areas, over a whole ground floor rather than a porch. Which one goes on the quote depends on the shape, the openings and the foot traffic, and we write down why.
What is under it. The deck is plywood, OSB or, on a lot of the stock around Winton and Charminster, chipboard that swells the first time it gets damp. Where a roof was never laid to a fall, firrings go over the joists, or tapered insulation does the same job in a warm roof build up, so water reaches the rainwater outlet instead of sitting on the covering. Standing water is not a leak by itself, but ponding holds grit and moss against the surface and finds every weakness in it. A bubble underfoot is trapped water, and the deck below is wet.
Where they actually leak. The upstand against the house wall, the abutment where a cover flashing is dressed into a chase, the drip and apron at the front edge, the kerb round a rooflight, and the outlet itself. Lead work, a parapet, a coping and a cavity tray want forming rather than painting over, and a skylight, a lantern, a Velux, an access hatch, a soil pipe or a vent pipe each need a collar. A fair share of what gets reported as a flat roof leak is a gutter, hopper or downpipe backing up under the edge.
Warm roof or cold roof. A warm roof puts PIR insulation above the deck with a vapour control layer under it, and it is what we would normally build now. A cold roof keeps the insulation between the joists and has to be ventilated, or warm damp air meets a cold surface and you get condensation and interstitial damp in the timbers instead of a visible leak. Keeping the dew point on the right side of the insulation is the point of the build up, and BS 6229 sets out how. A garage in EPDM is a day. An extension with two rooflights and a new deck runs to two or three working days.
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.
Re-covering a flat roof in the same materials is permitted development, so there is no planning permission to apply for. Renewing the covering over more than about a quarter of the area makes it a controlled thermal element under Approved Document L, so it goes through building control on a building notice or an application with full plans even where planning does not apply, and we handle that side of it. No conservation area covers this part of Bournemouth and the council keeps the list if you want to check your own street.
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. A garage roof off a back lane in Charminster, a single storey extension behind a Winton terrace and a balcony over a ground floor flat are three different jobs before anyone opens a tin. 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 under two miles away, so a Bournemouth address usually gets looked at the same day or the next, and an emergency cover is easier to get on before the deck soaks up any more. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Sea air gets at the metal, not the membrane
Winton sits a shade under three kilometres from the water, close enough for salt to settle on a roof and keep it damp between showers. It does not attack EPDM or felt. It attacks everything metal round the edge of them: the fixings through the edge trim, the nails in a timber kerb, the screws into an outlet, and the lead at an abutment. A flat roof can look sound in the middle while the trim it is clipped into has gone soft at the fixings, and the first gale finds it.
So on the seaward side of the house we use non ferrous or stainless fixings as a matter of course, and we would rather fit a heavier gauge trim than the thinnest one that fits. Worth asking any other quote about. This close to the coast it is the fixings and the trim that date first, not the sheet itself.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Winton, Charminster, Queen's Park, Springbourne, Littledown and Throop, and the BH8 streets are the closest work we do. 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
Bournemouth questions we get asked
Can a flat roof be patched, or does it all have to come off?
Very often it can be patched. If the covering 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 patch is a deck that has gone soft, because the repair then sits on something that moves.
How long does a new flat roof take?
A single garage is normally a day. An extension with a rooflight or two, a new deck and firrings to correct the falls is more like two or three working days. Rain stops a membrane going down, so we will not open a deck we cannot close the same day.
There is water sitting on my garage roof. Does it matter?
Pooling will not by itself put water through a sound covering, but it tells you the roof has no fall or the outlet is blocked. Ponding is where a split usually starts. Correcting the fall with firrings or tapered insulation is the fix.
Do I need building control for a new flat roof?
Not for a like for like repair. Where the covering is renewed over most of the roof it counts as a controlled thermal element under Part L, so the insulation is brought up to standard and the work is notified. No planning permission unless you change the shape.
Half of Bournemouth is flats. Who can order work on a communal roof?
Usually the freeholder or the managing agent, because the structure outside your front door is theirs and comes out of the service charge. We will still look on a free site visit and put the fault in writing, so you have something to send them.
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Get a price for your Bournemouth flat roof
Tell us the address and what you have noticed. We will get up and look, lift a corner where we can, and put an itemised price in writing. No charge, and no obligation.