Flat roofing in Burley

We start at the outlet on a Burley roof. On a roof tucked between two pitched slopes, everything that lands on both of them arrives at one small hole, and if that hole has silted up the roof has been holding water for years.

Ponding will not by itself come through a sound covering, but it keeps the surface cold, wet and under grit and moss, and it is where a split eventually opens. Where the fall has gone, firrings on the joists or tapered insulation in a warm roof build up put it back so the rainwater outlet is actually used.

Then what the covering is fixed to. Deck boards out in Burley run from plywood and OSB on newer work to chipboard, and to plain boarding on an old stable or store. Chipboard is the one that fails: it swells once and stays swollen. We lift a corner before pricing, because a sound deck can be re-covered and a soft one cannot, and no photograph will tell you which you have. A patch of covering that gives underfoot like a bubble has water beneath it.

Then the covering. Small failures are worth putting right while the rest is still good: a split along a lap, a blister lifted off the deck, a seam that has let go between two sheets, a trim whose fixings have worked loose. Torch on felt is cut out, primed and welded back under a fresh cap sheet. A crack in GRP fibreglass is ground out and re-laminated. EPDM rubber is cleaned and bonded down. Once the whole surface has hardened we strip it: rubber for a plain shape, fibreglass where there is detail to form, a built up three layer felt system on an outbuilding, single ply on a long span.

Then everything at the perimeter. The upstand against the house, the abutment where a lead cover flashing goes into a chase cut in a mortar joint, the drip and apron along the front, the kerb round a rooflight. A parapet, a coping and a cavity tray are formed rather than sealed over, and a skylight, a lantern, a Velux, a hatch, a soil pipe or a vent pipe each get a collar. Then the gutter, the hopper and the downpipe, which are checked as part of the same job.

And last, what is under the roof. Over a store a ventilated cold roof is fine. Over a kitchen you use every day it is not, because warm damp air will find the cold deck and you get condensation and interstitial damp instead of a puddle. A warm roof puts PIR above the deck with the vapour control layer below it and holds the dew point clear of the timber. BS 6229 is the code of practice. A garage runs to a day, an extension with a new deck and firrings to two or three working days.

We will not give a flat roof a price per square metre. The size is easy; the deck, the falls and the edges decide the work.

The deck. A solid deck can take a new covering directly. Chipboard that has been damp for years, or ply that sags, has to be taken up and replaced. Shade from trees keeps a Burley flat roof wet for longer, so a deck under branches is the one Thomas cuts into before quoting.

Where the water goes. A Burley roof laid dead level, or falling to an outlet clogged with leaves and pine needles, holds puddles after every shower. Firrings put a proper fall in. That is extra work, and it is what gives a new membrane a long life.

The system. EPDM rubber, GRP and torch-on felt are different products at different prices, each right for some roofs and wrong for others. Each upstand, edge trim and outlet is detailed on its own, and those are the places leaks usually begin.

Access. A garage down a gravel drive is a tower job; a rear extension above a two storey wall needs a scaffold. The work at height rules are why access sits on the quote by itself.

Ask any other roofer to name the system and layers, say if the deck is being replaced, and confirm that firrings and the skip are priced.

We cover Burley, Bransgore, Sopley, Ringwood East and the BH24 lanes around them. Our base in Boscombe is 8.8 miles from the village. The Park Authority is the planning body for the village, and New Forest District Council looks after building control.

Thomas Hannen, whose business it is, walks every flat roof and prices it himself. The company, Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, is registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. A verified customer left a 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit, and the written quote listing each item, cost nothing. Before you book a visit in Burley, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Burley 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.