Flat roofing in Cadnam and Bartley
Flat roof repairs, re-covering and warm roof build ups across Cadnam, Bartley and the SO40 villages. Free site visit, free written itemised quote.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Nearly every flat roof we are asked to look at around Cadnam and Bartley can be re-covered rather than rebuilt. The deck under the old covering is what decides that, so the first visit is about getting under a corner of it, not about a figure.
What brings the call is normally one of three things. A survey has flagged the flat roof during a sale. There is a pool up there that has not shifted since the last downpour. Or the covering has blistered and split where it turns up against the house. These are Forest edge villages of detached houses with room around them, which at least means we can usually get a tower up and look at the thing properly rather than guess at it. A lot of that housing dates from the late 1960s and early 1970s, so the coverings are the originals and they have stopped bending. We walk the roof, check the falls and the outlets, look at every junction with the main building, and photograph the lot before anyone talks money.
The jobs
From a porch roof to a full re-cover
First, find the real fault. Ceilings stain a long way from where water gets in, so we work backwards along the falls rather than cutting where the mark is. A blocked outlet accounts for more of it than anything else, and after that a lifted seam, a cracked fold, a blister that has gone, a perished upstand or a trim that has lost its grip. Every one of those is an hours job, and we would rather do the hours job and tell you honestly what the roof has left in it.
Then the strip, and the look underneath. Once a surface is past bending it comes off in one go and the deck is exposed. Plywood and OSB usually survive. Chipboard on a roof of this age usually does not, and where it has swelled or gone soft it is replaced and the joists checked. This is also the only honest moment to talk about falls, because a roof that holds water was built wrong rather than worn out. Firrings, or insulation cut on a taper, put the run back in towards the outlet.
Then the build up. Given a bare deck we would far rather make it a warm roof than repeat a cold one. Rigid PIR goes above the deck with a vapour control layer below it, so the timber stays warm, the dew point sits outside it and interstitial condensation has no cold surface to form on. Insulation stuffed between joists with no air path is what rots a flat roof from beneath, and it is why BS 6229:2025 on flat roofs and, where there is a room underneath, Approved Document L, both send the insulation upwards.
Then the covering, and every edge of it. EPDM rubber for a plain rectangle, bonded down as one sheet. GRP fibreglass laid wet and cured into a single skin with its trims for anything that gets walked on. Torch on felt, three layers built up under a mineral cap sheet, for a roof broken up by upstands. Single ply, welded at the joints, for a large span. After that come the parts that actually leak. A kerb formed for a rooflight, a lantern, a Velux, a hatch, a soil pipe or a vent pipe. An upstand with a cover flashing chased in where the roof meets the wall. An apron in lead where lead is already there, and a cavity tray where the wall has a cavity. Parapet and coping made good, drip and edge trim set out, gutter, hopper and downpipe running clear. Two to three working days for a garage or a small extension.
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.
These villages are inside the New Forest National Park, so the Authority handles planning rather than the district. A straight re-cover is maintenance and needs no planning permission, with Planning Portal guidance marking the limit. Permitted development is narrower inside a National Park than outside it, so an extension or a change of roof shape is far likelier to need consent than a re-cover ever is, and the National Park Authority's interactive property map will say what applies at your address. A new deck over a habitable room is a building control matter either way. Neither village has a conservation area of its own.
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 detached garage with room to work round it, a wide extension down a side path, and a roof above a first floor room are three separate jobs at the same area. 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 come up the A31 to these villages, so a roof letting water in gets looked at quickly. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
In the National Park, what can be seen is what gets looked at
The useful thing about a flat roof in a National Park is that most of them cannot be seen. A garage roof behind a hedge or an extension roof at the back of the house is invisible from the lane, and the Authority has no interest in what colour it is. That is worth knowing, because people assume every job inside the Park boundary turns into a planning exercise, and a straight re-cover does not.
Where it does matter is when the roof is part of what you see from outside. A garage that sits gable on to the road, an extension that reads across open ground, or a flat roof you can look down on from higher ground are all in view, and there materials and finish get proper scrutiny. So does anything that changes the shape of the building. National Park heritage and conservation guidance is the place to start, and if your own house is one of the listed buildings around these villages then consent comes before any change of material, not after. Tell us the address when you ring and we will say plainly whether you are looking at a roofing job or a planning job first.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Cadnam, Bartley, Copythorne, Winsor, Netley Marsh and the SO40 edge of the Forest. 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
Cadnam and Bartley questions we get asked
Do I need permission to re-cover a flat roof in the National Park?
Not for a like for like re-cover. Putting a new covering on an existing roof is maintenance, so there is nothing to apply for and no fee. It changes if you alter the shape of the roof, raise it, or convert the space beneath it into a room. If your house is listed, ask before anything is ordered.
What is the difference between a warm roof and what I have now?
Most older flat roofs are cold roofs, with insulation between the joists and a cold deck above it. A warm roof puts rigid insulation above the deck with a vapour control layer under it, so the timber stays warm and dry. It builds the roof up thicker, which is why upstand heights and door thresholds get measured at the survey.
How long will it take, and how much mess?
A garage or a small extension is two to three working days. The dirty part is the strip out, and that is the first morning. Nothing is left open overnight, the site gets swept at the end of each day, and the old covering and decking leave with us rather than sitting on your drive.
Can you do it in winter?
Yes, with an eye on the forecast. Cold is not really the problem, damp is, because a bonded or torch on system wants a dry deck. We would rather open a roof on a settled day than get halfway and sheet it over. Repairs and temporary covering carry on whatever the weather does.
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Get a price for your Cadnam or Bartley flat roof
Tell us the address and what you have noticed. We will come out, look under the covering where we can, and put an itemised price in writing. No charge, and no obligation.