Flat roofing in Breamore

The low roof at the back. Older houses around Breamore grew outwards, so there is usually a single storey outshot, lean to or link with a flat top on it. They are almost always felt: a built up three layer covering with a mineral cap sheet, sometimes over a much older layer that was never stripped.

Where the deck is sound we take it back to boards and lay EPDM rubber or a modern torch on system. Where it is not, the boards come off first.

Garages, stores and garden rooms. Detached buildings take the weather from all sides and have no house warming them, so the covering hardens faster and the edges go first. GRP fibreglass suits these well because it is laid wet and forms its own edge trim and upstands in one piece. Single ply, welded at the laps, is the sensible answer where the roof is large.

Deck, falls and insulation. Underneath you find plywood, OSB or chipboard on joists, and chipboard that has been wet does not come back. Firrings create the falls, and a roof laid dead flat holds standing water at every low spot. Where headroom will not allow deeper firrings, tapered insulation does the same work above the deck. A warm roof puts PIR over the boards with a vapour control layer laid under it, so the timber never sits at the dew point. A cold roof leaves the insulation between the joists and has to be ventilated, or condensation forms inside the build up and rots the decking without a drop of rain getting in. BS 6229 is the reference for all of it.

Where they leak. Blisters and bubbles under the membrane, a split or crack where the covering has been walked on, a lifted or failed seam at a lap, and an upstand that was never taken high enough behind a door threshold. Then the trims: the drip over the fascia, the apron into the wall, the kerb round a rooflight, and the outlet itself.

Junctions with old walls. Rubble and soft brick will not take a chase cut with a grinder, so an abutment is better formed with a lead cover flashing tucked into a raked joint or run behind a coping on a parapet. Cavity trays only exist on newer work, so on an older wall the detail has to be thought about rather than copied. Then the rainwater outlet, hopper, gutter and downpipe, sized for what the roof sheds.

Where the roof meets older walls. A flat roof tucked against an old stone, flint or brick wall needs its upstand chased into a mortar joint and a lead or membrane flashing dressed over it. Soft old walls do not take a modern chased flashing easily. That detail is often where the last roof failed, and it takes time.

The deck. A sound deck can be re-covered. A wet, soft or sagging one is replaced with new ply or OSB boards, and sometimes joists are doubled up. We lift a corner before quoting.

The falls. A roof laid dead level ponds, and the water finds the weakest joint. Tapered firrings set a proper fall to the outlet.

The system. Torch-on felt, EPDM rubber and GRP each suit different roofs. Where the roof is seen from a listed building or a conservation area street, a dark finish that looks like lead or traditional felt may matter more than cost.

Insulation and height. A warm roof adds thickness, which lifts the edges and can clash with a window sill or an old wall detail above.

Access. A garage or a single storey outshot comes off a tower. A roof between two pitched roofs needs a scaffold, and under the work at height rules that is priced as its own item.

If someone else is quoting for a Breamore roof, find out whether the deck is being renewed, how the upstand will meet the old wall, and whether scaffold and skip are included.

Thomas Hannen owns the business and gets up onto your flat roof himself before writing the price. He drives 16.1 miles from Boscombe to reach Breamore, and prices flat roofs in Woodgreen, Hale and the SP6 villages north of Fordingbridge too.

Planning here sits with New Forest District Council. On Companies House you will find Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales under 15471719. Checkatrade carries a 10 out of 10 from one verified customer. Coming out to see the roof is free, and the written quote, with every item on its own line, costs you nothing. Before you book a visit in Breamore, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Breamore 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.