Flat roofing in Burley

We start at the outlet. 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 here 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 sit behind a good half of the leaks reported to us out this way.

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.

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 on a gravel drive, a low outbuilding behind a cottage and a rear extension on a two storey house are three different jobs before a single sheet comes off. 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.

We cover Burley, Bransgore, Sopley, Ringwood East and the surrounding BH24 lanes, and the site visit is free. 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.