Flat roofing in Hamworthy

Repairs to felt. A split at an upstand, a lifted lap, a failed seam around a vent pipe or a blister that has burst can often be cut out and patched with torch on felt, provided the deck under it is dry. It is a morning's work. If the felt is crazed all over and the cap sheet has lost its chippings, a patch just moves the leak along, and we will say so.

Replacing the covering. Where the deck is sound we strip the old felt and lay a new system. EPDM rubber is a single ply sheet bonded to the deck, with no seams across the middle of an ordinary garage. GRP fibreglass is laid wet over a mat with edge trims and a drip at the gutter, and it takes foot traffic well on a roof you walk out onto. A modern three layer built up felt still has its place. On a Hamworthy garage it is usually one or two days.

New decks. Chipboard decks on Hamworthy roofs from this era swell and crumble once they get wet, and you feel it as a soft spot or a dip where water ponds. The old deck comes off down to the joists, the firring pieces are reset so the fall runs to the outlet, and new OSB or plywood goes down. Standing water that never clears means the fall is wrong, and no covering fixes that on its own.

Warm roofs. Many older flat roofs in Hamworthy are cold roofs, with a little insulation between the joists and no ventilation, so condensation gathers under the deck and rots it from below. Rebuilding as a warm roof puts a vapour control layer on the deck and PIR insulation boards above it, which moves the dew point out of the timber. Replacing most of a roof counts as renovation under Approved Document L, so building control is involved, and BS 6229 is the code of practice we design to.

Edges and openings. Most leaks are at the edges rather than in the middle: the abutment where the roof meets the house wall, which wants a lead cover flashing chased into a joint and sometimes a cavity tray above it, the kerb of a rooflight or skylight, the gutter and downpipe at the front edge, and the outlet. We detail those first and cover the field last.

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. In Hamworthy, an attached garage with a drive in front, a single storey kitchen extension reached through a narrow side passage, and a dormer on a bungalow roof all need a different platform. 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.

Hamworthy is BH15, across the harbour from Poole Quay and about 7.7 miles from our base in Boscombe. We cover the whole peninsula, from Lower Hamworthy and Carter's Quay by the bridges, through Central Hamworthy and Lake, out to Rockley and Cobbs Quay, and Turlin Moor on the Upton side.

BCP Council is the planning and building control authority. 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. Before you book a visit in Hamworthy, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Hamworthy 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.