Flat roofing in Downton
Flat roof repairs, re-covering and warm roof build ups across Downton and the SP5 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.
Downton flat roofs are mostly small, old and tucked behind something. A rear outshot, a bay top, a porch or a garage. Small does not mean simple, because it is the junction with the older building next to it that usually lets the water in.
An old village produces old roofs, and the calls reflect it. A ceiling has marked in a back room and nobody can say where the water came in. The covering has cracked along a fold where it has been flexing for years. Or a parapet has shed part of its coping and rain is running straight into the wall head. Much of the housing here predates the last century, so rather than one clean rectangle over a modern extension we are often looking at a narrow roof behind a terrace, a lean-to at the back of a cottage, or a flat section squeezed between two pitched roofs. What we do not do is guess from the pavement. We get onto the roof safely, check the falls, the outlets, the lead and every junction, and photograph it all before anything is priced.
The work itself
The coverings, the deck and the detail
We start at the junctions. On a roof tucked behind a terrace or set against a cottage wall, the covering in the middle is rarely the culprit. It is the upstand that was dressed against brickwork and never cut in, the lead that split because it was nailed so it could not move, the parapet that has lost its coping, or the outlet that silted up two winters back. Any one of those is a morning or a day rather than a new roof.
What a repair covers. Cracks at a fold, blisters that have burst, seams opened at a lap, edge trims off their fixings. All of them patchable while the rest of the covering still has life in it. We find the entry point by following the falls, not by opening the roof up above the stain.
Re-covering an awkward shape. These roofs are short spanned, irregular and full of upstands, and torch on felt in three built up layers under a mineral cap sheet copes with that better than anything else. Where there is a plain rectangle, EPDM rubber bonds down as one sheet with nothing crossing the field. Where people walk, GRP fibreglass sets into a single skin complete with its trims. Where a roof is genuinely large, single ply is welded at the joints. A small roof can be a day, a garage or an extension two to three working days.
Deck, falls and insulation. Boarded decks turn up here as often as plywood, OSB or chipboard, and a slow leak takes the joist ends before it ever marks a ceiling. Firm decking gets covered over, soft decking comes out. Standing water means the roof never had a fall, or its outlet has been built over, and we cut that back in with firrings or with tapered insulation. Over a heated room the sensible rebuild is a warm roof, with PIR above the deck and a vapour control layer under it, holding the timber above the dew point and shutting interstitial condensation out. That is the direction of both BS 6229:2025 on flat roofs and Approved Document L.
And then the rest of the detail. A kerb built for a rooflight, a lantern, a Velux, a hatch, a soil pipe or a vent pipe. A cover flashing chased in above a proper upstand. Lead aprons where lead belongs. A cavity tray where a cavity exists to take one. Copings reset. Drip, edge trim, gutter, hopper and downpipe all checked, because an old wall soaks up whatever a broken gutter gives it.
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.
Downton is in Wiltshire. A like for like re-cover is maintenance, needs no planning permission and sits inside permitted development, and Planning Portal guidance marks where that runs out. Change the roof shape, or deck over a habitable room, and building control applies under building notice or an application with full plans. A good part of the village lies in the Downton conservation area, with a great many listed entries around it, so where a roof shows or a building is listed we check other permissions you may require before writing a specification.
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 porch roof off a ladder, a rear outshot behind a terrace with no side access, and a garage on its own plot are three different days, whatever the tape says. 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. Downton is a longer run for us than the coast, but water landing on a ceiling still jumps the queue. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
In the conservation area, it is what shows that counts
The conservation area covers a good part of Downton, and it controls how the place looks rather than how it is built. On a flat roof that usually turns out to be good news, because most of them sit behind a parapet, behind a terrace or at the back of a cottage where nobody can see them from the street. A like for like re-cover there is maintenance and there is nothing to apply for.
Two things do change. If the roof can be seen from a public place, then swapping a dark mineral cap sheet for a bright finish, or putting a run of rooflights into a visible slope, is a change of appearance and worth asking about before you order anything. And if the building itself is listed, and plenty around Downton are, then consent comes before a change of material even on a roof nobody looks at. We are happy to write the specification so it says exactly what is going on, in what colour and to what profile, which is what the council will want to see anyway.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Downton, Redlynch, Morgan's Vale, Charlton All Saints and the SP5 villages along the Avon. 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
Downton questions we get asked
My flat roof runs into next door's. Who deals with what?
You deal with your own, but if the work touches a shared wall or you need to cut into it for a flashing or a cavity tray, that can bring in the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 and a notice to the neighbour. It is rarely a problem and it is much easier raised early than discovered on the day.
Is a flat roof over an old cottage a different job?
Usually yes. The spans are shorter, the decks are older, and the junctions with soft brick or a rendered wall need more care than a modern cavity wall does. It also means we would rather chase a flashing in neatly than seal over the top of it, because sealant on old fabric is a repair with a short life.
Can it be repaired instead of replaced?
Often. A split, a burst blister, a failed seam or a loose trim is a patch, and a blocked outlet is a morning. If the deck under the covering is wet through, a patch buys you one winter, and we will say so on the quote rather than take the money twice.
How long does the work take?
A small roof can be a single day. A garage or extension is normally two to three working days. Renewing the deck, correcting falls with firrings or forming a new kerb for a rooflight all add time, and a bonded system needs a dry deck, so the forecast has a say.
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Get a price for your Downton flat roof
Tell us the address and what you have noticed. We will come out, look at every junction, and put an itemised price in writing. No charge, and no obligation.