Flat Roofing in Holt
Flat roof repairs, re-covering in EPDM, GRP fibreglass and felt, new decks, falls and outlets on garages, outbuildings and extensions around Holt.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Last updated
Not every flat roof that looks past it needs replacing, and some that look fine are nearly gone. On a Holt property, where there is often more than one flat roof on the plot, the useful thing we bring is an order to spend in: what has to be done now, what will hold another year, and what we would leave alone.
If one of those roofs is letting water inside right now, that one goes first: ring 07435 839745.
Straight up
What needs doing now, and what will wait
Properties round Holt tend to sit along the lanes with a fair bit of outbuilding attached: a garage, a store, a workshop, a lean-to on the back of the house. That usually means several flat roofs and rarely the appetite to do them all in one month. So a first visit here is as much about priorities as it is about price.
We walk every one of them. Outlets and gutters get cleared and checked while we are up, the coverings get pressed to see which give and which crack, and anything we are unsure of gets opened in a small area and photographed. Then you get a written price per roof and a plain view on which one is urgent. None of that costs anything, and there is no pressure to take the whole lot at once.
Honest answers
What we would do here, and what we would talk you out of
We would repair almost any single fault. A blister, a bubble, a lifted lap, a split across a surface that is otherwise sound, a trim that has come away: every one of those is a morning. The failed area comes back to material with life left in it, a fresh piece is bonded or welded across, and the edge is dressed flat so wind cannot get a start on it.
We would talk you out of a fourth patch. Once a covering cracks wherever you press it, each repair only moves the leak along to the next weak spot, and you end up paying a small bill every year for a roof that needs doing anyway. Better to hear that on the first visit than after three more call-outs.
We would spend money on the deck before we spent it on the covering. Chipboard boarding that has been damp for years holds no screw and carries no weight, and plywood delaminates and flexes underfoot. Both come off and OSB goes back, with the joists checked while everything is open. The best membrane made is wasted over soft boards.
We would put the fall right at the same time. A roof that holds water after rain was built flat rather than worn flat, and firrings or tapered insulation are what put that back. We would open up the outlet, the hopper, the gutter and the downpipe too, because on a Holt outbuilding those are usually the parts nobody has touched since it went up.
We would talk you out of the wrong covering for the building. EPDM, one sheet of rubber bonded down cold with no flame anywhere, is the right answer over a timber workshop. GRP, brushed on wet over new plywood and cured as a single fibreglass skin, wants a rigid deck under it and does not care for movement. Three layer built up felt under a torched mineral cap sheet is what we would use on anything that gets walked on. Welded single ply belongs over a long open span such as a stable block. Anyone offering the same system for every roof on the plot is selling what is on the van.
And we would build it warm if the covering is coming off anyway. PIR over the boarding with the vapour control layer below it keeps the dew point out of the timber, where a cold roof depends on a ventilation gap staying clear for the rest of the building's life. BS 6229 is the code for the build. Either way the detailing is the same and it is where the leaks are: a cover flashing chased into the wall or lead over an apron, coping bedded on a parapet with a cavity tray behind, a drip trim along every open edge, a kerb built up under any rooflight or lantern so the skylight clears standing water, and a collar on each soil pipe, vent pipe and hatch.
How it runs
Re-covering a garage or lean-to roof around Holt
Thomas walks the roof for soft patches, looks at the outlets and upstands, and opens a lap or cuts a small inspection hole to see what the deck is made of and whether it is dry. On the written quote you will see separate lines for access, taking off the old covering, replacement deck boards or firrings if needed, insulation, the new membrane, upstands, outlets and edge trim, and the skip. Every line on it is ours to answer for.
A flat roof out in Holt might be over a garage, a lean-to against a back wall, a link between house and outbuilding, or a store down a track. Most of that is tower work, on boards if the ground is soft. If the van and skip have to come down a farm track, that is checked on the day of the survey rather than discovered on the day of the job.
Any deck left open overnight is sheeted and weighted before anyone goes home, and the old covering goes into our skip. If the rot runs past the inspection hole, work pauses while Thomas photographs and prices it.
Like for like re-covering is maintenance, and Planning Portal guidance explains where it stops being so. Where the roof sits over a heated room, renewing it means the insulation must meet Approved Document L, with Dorset Council as building control. No conservation area covers Holt. A listed building needs listed building consent before the roof is touched.
Cost
What the deck and the falls do to a flat roof price
A flat roof is not priced by the roll; the surprises are underneath. Position. In Holt, a double garage at the end of a track, a lean-to against an old cottage wall and a flat link between two pitched roofs each need a different set-up.
Single storey work is usually a tower job. Higher up, a scaffold stands for as long as the roof is open, and the rules for working at height are why that has its own figure on the quote.
The boards under the felt. Wet chipboard crumbles, and ply that has been damp delaminates and bounces underfoot. Either has to be replaced, while sound decking can simply be covered, and that is the biggest swing in the price.
Where the water goes. Water should run to an outlet. If it pools, tapered firrings put a fall in. With trees overhead, a generous outlet and a gutter you can reach to clear are worth paying for. Each outlet and each of the upstands is priced on its own, since the falls, the outlets and the upstands are where both the hours and the leaks are.
Against the wall. Where a lean-to meets older brick or stone, the upstand flashing is cut into a joint, not stuck to the face, which is slow work.
Which membrane. EPDM rubber, GRP fibreglass and torch-on felt differ in price and in how they cope with movement and foot traffic. The code of practice for flat roofs covers how each should be laid.
When comparing, find out which system and how many layers, whether rotten decking is being replaced, and whether firrings, edge trims and the skip are included.
If it is coming through
A split or blistered flat roof letting water in
Once a flat roof splits or a blister bursts, rain runs through to the ceiling below and goes on soaking the deck after it stops. Catch the drip in a bucket. A ceiling bellying with water can be pierced with a screwdriver where it hangs lowest, over the bucket, so it drains rather than collapses.
On a Holt garage under trees, a blocked outlet alone can flood the roof, so look at it from a ladder only if that is safe. The first visit clears the outlet and gets a temporary sheet or patch over the split or the lifted upstand. Phone us about a leak, since the form is slower, and a missed call gets returned as soon as we can. Our booked hours are Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Green Belt
It stops new buildings, not new roofs
Holt sits in the Green Belt, and the phrase makes people nervous when the job is only a roof. It should not. Green Belt policy is aimed at new building and at making existing buildings substantially bigger. Putting a new covering on a garage that has stood in the same spot for forty years does not engage it at all. You are maintaining something, not adding anything.
Where it starts to matter is when the conversation drifts, which it generally does on a site visit with a cup of tea in hand. The workshop roof is leaking, so while the tower is up, could the walls go a course higher, could it become a garden room, could there be another store beside it. Every one of those is development, and in the Green Belt that is a real question with a real answer, on top of building control. Keep the two apart. Get the roof watertight this month and give the bigger idea its own drawings and its own application.
Who you are dealing with
A named owner, and a company you can check
Garage, lean-to and extension roofs in Holt, Furzehill, Hinton Martell and the BH21 lanes towards Wimborne Minster are all within our range, working out from Bournemouth. Our Boscombe base is about nine miles away in a straight line, and the council is Dorset.
It is Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the person who walks your roof and writes the figure. A verified customer's review on Checkatrade gives us 10 out of 10. We make no charge for the visit or for the itemised written quote. Registered name: Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Holt, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Holt?
Most repairs in Holt 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 Holt |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Holt. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Holt, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Holt. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Holt. |
Questions
Questions about building work around Holt
There are three flat roofs here. Can you price them separately?
Yes, we would price the three flat roofs separately anyway. Each roof gets its own written price with the access, the deck, the covering and the detailing itemised, so you can take them in whatever order suits you.
Do you work on outbuildings and stables?
Yes, and that is exactly the kind of roof out this way we take on. Workshops, stores, stable blocks and garages all get the same survey as a house roof, and the same written quote.
Will the Green Belt hold the job up?
Not for a re-cover: you are repairing a building that already exists, which is maintenance, not development. It only becomes a planning question if you want to make the building bigger or put another one beside it.
The store roof leaks round the rooflight. Is that the rooflight or the roof?
Usually it is the kerb it sits on, not the unit itself. If the covering was never dressed properly up and over a built up kerb, water tracks in under the frame. We rebuild the kerb and dress the covering over it, and the same unit usually goes back.
How long are you on site?
A garage or a store is a day or two. Anything needing new boards, new firrings and a rebuilt kerb runs to three or four. Wet weather moves the dates rather than the price, because nothing bonds or cures on a damp deck.
Nearby, and next door
Flat roofing near Holt
Nearby places we also cover for flat roofing, with straight-line distances from Holt, and the other trades we offer in Holt itself.
Flat roofing nearby
Our other trades in Holt
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Free quote
Get a written price for your Holt flat roof
A free site visit, the deck checked before we quote, and an itemised price you can compare.