Flat roofing in Christchurch

Balconies and terraces you walk on. Common in Christchurch because so much of the housing is flats. A walked on deck takes punishment a garage roof never sees, so it wants a system made for it: a reinforced GRP fibreglass finish, or a single ply with a walkway, laid over insulation that will carry the load.

The threshold is the critical bit. An upstand at a door has to be high enough or the water comes back over it, and where headroom is tight the answer is a drainage channel rather than a shortcut.

Parapet roofs behind an older frontage. Plenty of the Christchurch town centre and the older terraces have a flat roof hidden behind a parapet wall, draining to one internal outlet. That is a design with no margin: block the outlet and the roof becomes a tank, and the first thing you see is a damp patch at the top of a wall. We clear and re-form the outlet, check the coping and the cavity tray, and dress a proper lead cover flashing into a chase rather than relying on mastic.

Extensions, garages and dormer tops. In Christchurch these come back in EPDM rubber where the shape is simple, GRP fibreglass where there are kerbs and detail, or torch on felt built up in three layers under a mineral cap sheet where a robust covering matters more than the finish. Single ply, welded at the laps, is for the larger areas.

What is underneath. Plywood, OSB or chipboard on joists, with firrings setting the falls. Chipboard that has been wet is finished. If the falls were never right you get ponding and standing water, and every seam and bonded lap under a puddle ages faster than the rest. Tapered insulation corrects a fall without raising the joists. On a warm roof the PIR sits above the deck over a taped vapour control layer, which keeps the timber warmer than the dew point. A cold roof needs a ventilated void or you get condensation and interstitial damp instead of a leak. BS 6229 sets out both.

Details and rainwater. Blisters, bubbles, splits and a crack at a kerb are the usual faults, along with a lifted or failed seam at an abutment. Round the edges it is the drip, the edge trim and the apron into the wall. Openings mean a rooflight, a lantern or a Velux on a kerb, and any soil pipe or vent pipe through the decking. Then the downpipe, the hopper, the gutter and the rainwater outlet itself. Close to the water, salt shortens the life of a fixing and an aluminium trim, so those are specified to suit.

A flat roof in town is priced on what lies under the membrane and on how we reach it, not on its area.

What the deck is made of. Firm ply or boards can take a new covering. Chipboard that has soaked up water for years, or ply that flexes under a boot, has to come out, and nobody can tell which from the ground. That is why Thomas cuts a small inspection hole before pricing; the deck is the biggest single swing.

Where the water goes. Most failed flat roofs in Christchurch hold puddles, because they were laid with too little fall or the outlet has blocked. Tapered firrings put a fall back, which takes longer than laying a membrane but is what gives it a long life. Each upstand, edge trim and outlet is priced separately.

Height and the street. A garage or a single storey rear extension is reached from a tower. A parapet over a shopfront, or a balcony high on a block of flats, needs scaffold that stays up while the deck is open, often with a pavement licence, and the rules on roofwork make that a priced line.

Salt and wind. On a roof facing south-west the membrane edges and trims take the gusts, so the edge detail and fixings are specified for it, and metal trims this close to the sea should be coated or stainless.

Any other roofer pricing a Christchurch flat roof should name EPDM, GRP or felt and the number of layers, say whether the chipboard is being replaced, and show whether the scaffold and the skip are in the figure.

We cover Christchurch town, Purewell, Stanpit, Somerford and the BH23 addresses round them, 2.7 miles from our base in Boscombe, and BCP Council is the authority for anything notifiable. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is the company, registered in England and Wales, number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Christchurch, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Thomas Hannen, who owns it, gets up onto your balcony or extension roof and works out the price himself. A verified customer gave us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. Neither his visit nor the written quote listing every item will cost you anything.

Most repairs in Christchurch 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.