Flat Roofing in Lover
Flat roof repairs, re-covering in EPDM, GRP fibreglass and felt, new decks, falls and lead detailing on older property around Lover and Redlynch.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Almost every flat roof round here is single storey: a lean-to, a bathroom over the back, a garage put up later. That keeps the access cheap, which is worth knowing, because it means a proper quote spends its money on the deck and the junctions rather than on getting up there.
The first look
What happens before anybody writes a price
A damp patch has come up on a bedroom ceiling. A garage covering has split and blistered after a hot summer. Water lies up there for days on end, which is ponding, and normally means the roof was never laid to a fall in the first place.
None of that reads properly from the garden. We get up, walk it, lift a small area where it is safe to, and photograph the boards, so what you are handed is evidence rather than an opinion.
The visit costs nothing and neither does the written quote. Where the answer is a repair we say so, even on a roof old enough that a re-cover would have been the bigger job.
Stage by stage
What a day on your roof actually looks like
Strip. The old covering comes off rather than a new one going over the top of it, because you cannot see a wet deck through a fresh membrane. Torch on felt, built up felt, a cracked GRP shell or a lifted single ply sheet all come back to the boards, and what comes off leaves with us.
Look. Plywood, OSB, chipboard, or plain boarding across the joists on the older additions. Chipboard that has been damp is finished and sags between the timbers. Ply that gives underfoot is going the same way. On a later addition the joists themselves are often light as well as wet, so they get checked before anything goes back down.
Set the fall. Firrings cut and fixed over the joists, or tapered insulation shaped into a warm roof build up, so the surface runs at a rainwater outlet. This is the stage that decides how long the roof lasts and it is the one most often skipped. Standing water finds every lap and seam it can, given time.
Insulate. On a warm roof, PIR over the deck with the vapour control layer beneath it, which holds the dew point out of the timber. On a cold roof the insulation stays between the joists and the void above it has to be ventilated, or condensation and interstitial damp finish the boards off from underneath. BS 6229 covers the build and Approved Document L the level it has to reach.
Cover. EPDM rubber unrolled as one sheet with its laps bonded cold. GRP fibreglass laid wet over new ply and cured into a single skin. Three layers of built up felt under a torch on mineral cap sheet. Single ply hot air welded where the span is long. Shape and foot traffic pick between them.
Detail, then follow the water. This is the slow part. An upstand against soft old brickwork will not always take a cut chase, so it becomes lead over an apron, or a cover flashing pinned and pointed instead. A parapet gets its coping bedded and a cavity tray behind. Edge trims with a drip go round the open sides. Every rooflight, lantern, Velux, hatch, soil pipe and vent pipe gets a kerb or a collar. Then the outlet, hopper, gutter and downpipe are cleared and run through, because under trees they silt up faster than anybody expects.
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 a flat roof in what was there before is maintenance, and Planning Portal guidance sets out where that stops and planning permission starts. Addresses around Lover sit close to the New Forest National Park boundary, and which authority handles an application depends on which side of it you are, so it is worth checking on the National Park Authority's interactive property map before anything is ordered.
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 lean-to behind a cottage, a garage set away from the house and a flat section between two pitched roofs are three different jobs before anything comes off the van. 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. Put a bucket under it and pierce a bulging ceiling in one spot over the bucket rather than waiting for it to give way. An emergency cover to keep the deck dry is arranged as quickly as we can get across. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
On a wall this old, the flashing is the whole argument
A good quarter of the property round here went up before the First World War. On a flat roof that does not change which covering you choose, but it changes everything about the edges. Solid walls move, settle and hold moisture in a way a modern cavity does not. A chase cut hard into soft brick or a lime jointed wall can do more damage than the leak it was cut for, and a flashing pinned into crumbling mortar will be off again inside two winters.
So on the older houses we work with the wall instead of into it. Lead dressed over an apron. A cover flashing wedged and repointed rather than raked out deep. Upstands taken high enough that driven rain off the south west cannot get behind them. It is slower, and on the quote it shows up as more hours at the junctions and fewer square metres of covering. On a house of this age that is the right way round, and it is a fair question to put to any other quote you are holding.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Lover, Redlynch, Downton, Morgan's Vale and the villages across SP5, working over from Bournemouth. 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
Lover questions we get asked
Do I ask the National Park or the district council?
It depends which side of the boundary your address falls on, and round here that line runs close. The Park Authority's property map settles it in a moment. For a like for like re-cover it makes no odds either way, because that is maintenance.
There are trees over the roof. Does that change anything?
It changes the upkeep more than the build. Leaf litter blocks an outlet and holds damp on the covering, so we size the outlet properly, fit a guard where it suits, and tell you when to look at it. No covering minds a tree. A blocked outlet minds it a great deal.
Can you buy me a season while I decide?
Sometimes, and we will say plainly when that is all it is. A temporary patch on a covering that still bends is fair value. On one that cracks wherever you press it we would rather sheet it and price the proper job than take money for the same roof twice.
Is a tower enough on a lean-to?
On most single storey work here, yes, and it is a lighter line on the quote than a scaffold. Above a two storey wall, or where boards and insulation have to be handled up a face, we want a proper platform that stands while the deck is open.
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Get a written price for your Lover flat roof
A free site visit, the deck and the junctions checked, and an itemised quote you can compare.