Flat roofing in East Boldre
Flat roofs on extensions, garages, garden rooms and outbuildings around East Boldre and the SO42 addresses on the forest edge.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Out in East Boldre a flat roof usually goes at the perimeter first. Wind lifts an edge, water gets under it, and by the time it shows inside the deck has been wet for a while. The edge detail is what we look at before anything else.
Around East Boldre the flat roofs that fail are mostly on outbuildings and later additions. A garage or workshop roof where the felt has torn back at a corner and is flapping. An extension roof that has started marking the ceiling under it after a wet spell. Or a garden room that was put up cheaply and has never drained properly. Properties here sit in the open with nothing much to shelter them, so each of them tends to start at an edge or an outlet rather than in the middle. We come out, walk it, check the fixings and the falls, and put the findings and a written price in front of you. If a torn corner is letting rain into the garage or workshop right now, ring 07435 839745.
The work
Extensions, workshops and the buildings at the end of the track
Extensions and garden rooms. A single storey flat roof on the back of a cottage is the typical case here. Where the shape is simple, EPDM rubber is hard to beat: one sheet, bonded seams, very little to fail.
Where there are kerbs, a step in the level or an awkward corner, GRP fibreglass is laid wet and forms the upstands and edge trim in one piece. Single ply, welded at the laps and mechanically fixed, is the answer on anything large.
Garages, workshops and stables. Detached buildings get no warmth from a house and take weather from every side, so felt built up in three layers beneath a mineral cap sheet hardens and cracks sooner than the same covering on a house. A torch on system on a sound deck is a good answer in East Boldre on a big span.
Wind, and why the edges matter. Uplift does not push a roof down, it sucks the perimeter up. That is why the fixing pattern is closer at the edges and corners than in the field of the roof, why a loose edge trim is a genuine fault rather than a cosmetic one, and why a lifted or failed seam near a corner is worth attending to quickly. On a mechanically fixed single ply the fixing centres are part of the specification, not a detail left to the day.
Deck, falls and insulation. Plywood, OSB or chipboard over joists, with firrings giving the falls. Wet chipboard is beyond saving. Where the falls are wrong you get ponding and standing water, and a puddle sitting over a lap works on it every day. Tapered insulation fixes a fall without altering the joists. A warm roof puts the PIR over the deck with a vapour control layer directly beneath, so the timber stays above the dew point all winter. A cold roof has to be ventilated or you get condensation and interstitial damp in the decking. BS 6229 is the code behind all of it.
Junctions, openings and rainwater. Against a wall the abutment gets a chase and a lead cover flashing, and on a parapet the coping and cavity tray get checked at the same time. A rooflight, a lantern or a Velux sits on a kerb that has to be insulated and dressed, and so does a soil pipe or a vent pipe. Then the rainwater: outlet, hopper, gutter and downpipe, and out in East Boldre they fill with leaf litter faster than most people expect.
How it runs
Re-covering a flat roof on a forest plot
On an East Boldre flat roof Thomas climbs up, walks the deck to feel for soft spots, checks each upstand where it meets a wall and finds where the water leaves the roof. His written quote then shows access, stripping the old covering, any new deck or firrings, insulation, the membrane, every upstand, outlet and edge trim, and disposal as separate items. The strip and the new covering both sit on that one quote.
A flat roof out in East Boldre could be a garage, a single storey extension, a dormer, a porch, a stable or a store. With open ground around most of them, a tower goes up alongside. The skip sits inside your gate rather than on a verge where stock roam. Each evening the deck is weathered in and the ground swept, and the old felt goes with us. Rotten joists found under the deck are photographed and priced for you before any are replaced.
Re-covering like for like is maintenance, so no planning permission, but National Park land narrows permitted development and brings a design test for anything visible. National Park heritage and conservation guidance explains that, and we confirm conservation area status for your address. Building control, which is New Forest District Council, is a separate matter: once most of a covering comes off, the roof is a thermal element being renovated, the work is notifiable, and Part L in Approved Document L sets what the insulation must reach.
Cost
Deck, falls and system: the cost of a flat roof
The deck under an East Boldre roof sets the price. Wet chipboard swells and crumbles, and ply that flexes underfoot has lost its strength. Either has to come up. You cannot see it in a photo, so Thomas cuts a small inspection hole before quoting, because the deck is the largest single unknown.
Where the water goes. Ponding means the roof has no fall, or the outlets are blocked. Firrings under a new deck put the fall back. It costs more than a straight re-cover, and it is the part that makes the new membrane last.
Bringing it up to standard. Over a heated room, building control expects the new roof to be insulated. The extra depth lifts the roof, so upstands, edge trims and sometimes a door threshold change with it.
Which system. Felt torched on in layers, one sheet of EPDM rubber, or GRP. An unheated stable and a warm kitchen extension need different answers.
Reaching it. A garage is tower work. Above a two storey wall it is scaffold, and the work at height rules put the platform on its own line. An East Boldre roof at the end of a track may mean a smaller skip.
On any rival quote, check the system and number of layers, whether there is a new deck, whether the falls are corrected, and whether scaffold and skip are in.
If it is coming through
Water dripping through a split flat roof
A flat roof that has split, blistered or peeled back at an upstand will keep feeding water to the ceiling below. Phone us instead of filling in the form. Bucket under the drip, people out of the room if the ceiling sags, and nobody up on a wet deck.
The deck goes on soaking after the rain stops, so the first visit covers it with a temporary patch or a weighted tarpaulin, and the permanent price follows once we can see how far the wet has spread. Booked work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Call about a leak, and a call we miss is returned at the earliest chance.
Worth knowing
In the National Park, what it looks like is part of the decision
The National Park Authority is the planning authority for East Boldre, not the district council, and that changes the flavour of anything you apply for. Design scrutiny falls on what can be seen: from a lane, from a track, from the open forest. A flat roof tucked behind a house is rarely anybody's concern. A new lantern on a roof you can see across a paddock might be.
The practical advice is simple. If the work is a like for like re-cover, get on with it. If it changes the shape, adds an opening, or swaps a dull covering for something that will catch the light, ask the Authority first, because the answer costs nothing before the work and a great deal after it. We will put the proposed build up, materials and colour in writing so you have something to send in with the question.
Who you are dealing with
Flat roofing from a firm with a registered name
Our base in Boscombe is 16.7 miles from East Boldre, and our flat roof work reaches Norleywood, Bull Hill and the SO42 addresses down to the Solent shore. The Park Authority deals with planning here, and New Forest District Council with building control.
You would be contracting with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales as company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen, the owner, gets up on your roof and does the pricing. One verified Checkatrade customer scored the work 10 out of 10. We make no charge for coming out, nor for the itemised written quote. Before you book a visit in East Boldre, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in East Boldre?
Most repairs in East Boldre 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.
| Question | In East Boldre |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for East Boldre. New Forest National Park Authority's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Forest South East Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around East Boldre. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the New Forest National Park, where design is looked at more closely and permitted development rights are narrower. |
Questions
Questions about flat roofs in East Boldre
The edge of ours lifts in a gale. Can that be fixed without a new roof?
Often yes. A lifted edge trim can be taken off, the perimeter re-fixed at proper centres and the trim re-bedded and re-fitted, which is a morning. What you cannot do is leave it, because once wind has got under a membrane it works at the seams all winter.
Leaves block the outlet every autumn. What can be done?
A leaf guard on the outlet and a hopper you can actually reach make a real difference, and where the roof drains to a gutter, sizing the downpipe properly stops it backing up. It still wants clearing, but twice a year rather than after every storm.
Can you fit a rooflight while you are re-covering?
Yes, and doing it during a re-cover is much cheaper than afterwards. The kerb is built up off the deck, insulated and dressed so the membrane runs over it. In the National Park it is worth checking first whether the opening is visible, because that is what the Authority looks at.
How long does a flat roof take?
A garage roof is a day. An extension with the deck renewed, the falls corrected and a warm build up added takes three working days at the outside. We give you the run of days on the free site visit, not on the morning we arrive.
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Flat roofing near East Boldre
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Free quote
Get a price for your East Boldre flat roof
Tell us the address and what you have noticed. We will check the edges and the deck, then put an itemised price in writing.