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.
Out here 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.
People ring about three things around East Boldre. 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 all three tend 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.
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 most common job 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 here 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 here they fill with leaf litter faster than most people expect.
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.
Re-covering like for like is maintenance, so no planning permission, but this is National Park land, which narrows permitted development and puts a design test on anything visible. East Boldre also sits within a conservation area, and National Park heritage and conservation guidance explains how the Authority handles it. Building control is a separate matter from the Authority: once most of a covering comes off, the roof counts as a thermal element being renovated, the work is notifiable, and Part L in Approved Document L sets what the insulation has to reach.
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 stable block, an extension on a forest edge cottage and a garage at the end of a track are three different days out, whatever the roofs measure. 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. East Boldre is the far end of the patch for us, so we will give you an honest time rather than an emergency promise we cannot keep, and getting it covered comes before pricing it. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
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
A local firm you can check
We cover East Boldre, Norleywood, Bull Hill and the SO42 addresses running down towards the Solent shore, and the New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority here. 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
East Boldre questions we get asked
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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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.