Flat roofing in Furzehill
Flat roof repairs, re-covering and warm roof build ups around Furzehill and the BH21 lanes. 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.
The honest answer on most Furzehill flat roofs is that the covering is not the problem. The fall is, or the outlet is, or the upstand is. Put a new surface over any of those and you have bought yourself a few years at full price.
A lot of what we look at up here went on in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when a flat roof was laid dead level and nobody thought twice about it. Half a century later the calls are all variations on the same thing. A stain has come through a garage or utility ceiling. The surface has gone hard and split along a fold. Or the water sits up there for days and somebody has finally decided to ask whether that is normal. It is not. We come out, walk the roof, find out where it is meant to drain and where it actually drains, lift a corner of the covering where we sensibly can, and photograph all of it so you are not taking our word for anything.
What we do
Everyday flat roof work, start to finish
The fault list, roughly in the order we find them. Water standing where the roof was laid level. An outlet blocked, or swallowed by a later extension. A fold that has cracked. A blister that has gone. A lap that has opened up. A trim off its fixings. A perished upstand where the covering turns up the wall. Every one of those is a repair, and a repair is what we will quote you if a repair is what it needs.
What a re-cover actually involves. Off comes the old surface. Then the deck gets its inspection and the falls get corrected, before a single new roll is opened. Only then the covering. A plain garage takes EPDM rubber, bonded down in one piece with nothing crossing the middle. Anything walked on takes GRP fibreglass, laid wet and cured into a single skin with the trims built into it. A roof cut about with upstands takes torch on felt, three layers built up under a mineral cap sheet. A large roof takes single ply, welded at the joints. Two to three working days is normal for a garage or a small extension.
Decks and insulation. Plywood, OSB and chipboard, and round here it is the chipboard that has given up. Firm boards get covered over, soft boards come out and the joists get looked at while there is nothing sitting on them. Falls are set with firrings or by cutting the insulation on a taper. On a rebuild the insulation goes above the deck as rigid PIR with a vapour control layer beneath it, which keeps the timber warm, puts the dew point outside it and leaves interstitial condensation nowhere to happen. Wool packed between joists with no ventilation path is the arrangement that quietly rots, and it is why BS 6229:2025 on flat roofs and Approved Document L both send the insulation upward.
Everything at the edges. A kerb built for a rooflight, a lantern, a Velux, a hatch, a soil pipe or a vent pipe. An upstand and a chased cover flashing at the wall. A lead apron where lead is already there. A cavity tray where the wall has a cavity. Parapet and coping made good. Drip and edge trim set out properly. Gutter, hopper and downpipe below, clear and running, because none of the work above counts for anything if the water ends up on the wall.
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.
Furzehill sits in Dorset Council's area. A new covering on an existing roof is maintenance: no planning permission, and permitted development covers it, with Planning Portal guidance marking the limits. Decking over a habitable room, or converting a garage, is where building control and building notice or an application with full plans apply. There is no conservation area here, and if your own house is one of the listed buildings then listed building consent comes first.
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 garage at the end of a gravel drive, an extension behind a narrow side gate, and a roof squeezed between two pitched slopes are three different 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. Furzehill is close enough that a roof putting water on a ceiling here is usually a same day or next day visit. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Nothing here decides your covering for you, so let the roof decide it
There is no conservation area over Furzehill, and the listed buildings are farmhouses and cottages around the lanes rather than anything in the housing, Wilksworth Farmhouse among them. For an ordinary house that means nobody has an opinion on what goes on your flat roof. It is a technical choice, not a planning one, and that is rarer round here than you might think.
So let the roof choose. If it is a plain rectangle over a garage with no penetrations, EPDM rubber goes on as one sheet and there is nothing to fail across the middle of it. If people will walk on it, or there is a rooflight, a step or a lot of trim work, GRP fibreglass cures into one piece with its edges and takes the traffic. If the roof is cut up, has several upstands and abuts an older wall, torch on felt in three layers is still the most forgiving thing to lay. And if the deck has to come off anyway, that is the moment to build it back as a warm roof rather than repeat the cold roof that failed. Ask any quote which of those it is pricing, and why.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Furzehill, Colehill, Holt, Wimborne Minster and the BH21 lanes north of the town. 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
Furzehill questions we get asked
There is always a puddle on my roof. Does it matter?
Yes, more than most people think. Standing water works at seams and laps, holds dirt and moss, and turns a small defect into a leak far faster than a roof that drains. It also tells you the fall is wrong. Correcting that with firrings or tapered insulation is the difference between a roof that lasts and one you do again.
Can you fit a rooflight while you are re-covering?
Yes, and that is the sensible time to do it. A rooflight, a lantern or a Velux wants a kerb built up off the deck so the covering can be dressed up and over it. Cutting one into a finished roof afterwards means opening it all up again around the hole.
Is my roof a warm roof or a cold roof?
If the insulation is between the joists with a cold deck above it, it is a cold roof, which is what most roofs of this age are. A warm roof has rigid insulation above the deck and a vapour control layer under it. We can usually tell from the build up depth at the edge and from what is visible inside.
Who takes the old roof away?
We do. Stripped covering, wet decking and old insulation all go with us and disposal is an itemised line rather than a surprise at the end. The site is swept at the end of each day and nothing is left open overnight.
Nearby, and next door
Flat roofing near Furzehill
Flat roofing nearby
Our other trades in Furzehill
Everything we do in Corfe Mullen Flat roofing, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get a price for your Furzehill flat roof
Tell us the address and what you have noticed. We will come out, check where the water is meant to go, and put an itemised price in writing. No charge, and no obligation.