Flat roofing in Broadstone

Small roofs, quick jobs. A garage, a porch or the flat top over a bay window in Broadstone is normally a single day. Most are felt, either a three layer built up system finished with a mineral cap sheet or a single torch on layer stuck over the last one.

When the surface has gone brittle you get splits at the creases, blisters where damp was trapped, and a lifted seam at the back upstand. We strip to the deck and lay EPDM rubber in one piece, which leaves no lap and no seam anywhere in the open field of the roof.

Bigger roofs and awkward shapes. GRP fibreglass earns its place where a roof has kerbs, upstands and corners to work round, because it is laminated in place and every detail is part of the same skin. Single ply is hot air welded rather than bonded and suits a long run over an extension.

Deck, joists and falls. Under the covering is plywood, OSB or chipboard decking. Wet chipboard swells and gives underfoot and has to come off. The joists usually survive, and the firrings on them are what create the fall towards the outlet. Where the falls cannot be rebuilt in timber we form them in tapered insulation. Ponding, that flat sheet of standing water sitting a week after the rain, is the symptom of getting this wrong. BS 6229 covers how the falls and the drainage should be set out.

The insulation question. A sun lounge, a kitchen extension or a room in the roof all count as heated, so Part L expects the insulation to come up when the covering is renewed. Above the deck, sitting on a vapour control layer with PIR taking the thickness, keeps the timber warm. Between the joists leaves the deck on the cold side of the dew point, invites interstitial condensation into the build up, and rots it from within while the membrane above still looks perfect. We build the first kind. Building control are notified and inspect before it closes.

Junctions and openings. An abutment gets a chase cut into the wall and a lead cover flashing dressed into it, with a cavity tray over the top where the wall is cavity built. A parapet gets a coping and an apron beneath. Openings are formed on kerbs so the covering can turn up an upstand instead of stopping against a frame, and that goes for a rooflight, a lantern, a Velux style flat roof window, a loft hatch and a soil and vent pipe alike. The free edges finish on a drip trim, and the water leaves by a rainwater outlet into a hopper, a downpipe or the gutter. Extensions run to two or three working days, and we say how long before we start.

A Broadstone flat roof has no rate per square metre. The area is quick to measure. What decides the job is what the old covering has been hiding.

The deck. Broadstone garage roofs and dormers from the post-war years were usually boarded in chipboard or softwood and covered in felt. Chipboard that has taken water swells and crumbles, and ply that flexes underfoot has to come out too. Thomas lifts a corner before quoting, because a new deck is the biggest single swing in the price.

Falls. Plenty of garage roofs in Broadstone were laid almost dead level, so water ponds in the middle and sits there. Putting a proper fall in with firrings means stripping back to the joists. It is worth doing, and it goes on the quote as a separate line.

Which system. EPDM goes on as a single sheet, GRP is laid wet and needs a dry spell, and torch-on felt goes down in layers. Each one details the upstands, outlets and edge trims differently, and that is where most of the hours go. BS 6229 is the code of practice behind all three.

Access. A garage off the drive in Broadstone, low at the eaves, is worked from a tower. A dormer, or the roof of a low block of flats, wants a scaffold for as long as the deck is open, and the work at height rules make that a priced line.

Before you compare, ask each firm which system and how many layers, whether the deck is renewed or covered over, and whether the scaffold and skip are included.

Broadstone drains slowly in heavy rain. The surface water risk across the area is on the high band, which you can check for your own postcode on the government flood risk service, and it changes one thing about a flat roof: the outlet is not a detail, it is the point.

A flat roof holds every drop that lands on it until the outlet takes it away. If that outlet is undersized, half blocked with moss, or discharging into a gully that is already backing up, the water sits on the deck and finds the first weak lap. So when we re-cover, we size the outlet for the area it serves, fit a leaf guard, and put in an overflow through the upstand so a blockage shows itself down the wall instead of soaking through your ceiling. We check where the downpipe actually goes too, because plenty around Broadstone discharge onto a path and straight back against the wall. Clearing the outlet twice a year afterwards costs nothing and prevents most of it.

We re-cover flat roofs on garages, dormers and extensions across BH18, from Canford Heath to Merley and Corfe Mullen. We drive over from Boscombe, 7.3 miles, and BCP Council deals with planning and building control.

Thomas Hannen owns the business and gets up on your roof to price it himself, so the man who quotes is the man responsible for the job. The company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Checkatrade lists a verified customer's 10 out of 10 for us. Coming out costs you nothing, and the itemised written quote is free too. Before you book a visit in Broadstone, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Broadstone 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.