Flat roofing in Lyndhurst

The dormer cheek on a Lyndhurst house comes first. Small, high up, and ignored because nobody can see it. What fails is the junction: the upstand where the cheek meets the main slope, the lead soaker or cover flashing dressed into a chase, and the drip and apron along the front.

Water finds those long before it finds the middle of a covering. EPDM rubber and a torch on felt patch will both take a cheek, and the work is in the detailing rather than the area.

The back addition. The typical flat roof in Lyndhurst. The deck is often plain boarding across the joists, not plywood, OSB or chipboard, and it was rarely laid to a fall. Firrings over the joists, or tapered insulation inside a warm roof build up, get water back to the rainwater outlet. Ponding holds grit and moss on the surface and keeps the roof from drying, and a bubble underfoot means the boards below have gone. Where the covering is otherwise sound we repair: a split at a lap, a blister that has lifted, a seam that has failed. Felt is cut out, primed and welded under a fresh cap sheet, fibreglass is ground back and re-laminated, rubber is cleaned and bonded again.

The link and the yard roof. Awkward shapes with a kerb, an outlet and often a rooflight in them. GRP fibreglass is laid wet onto the deck and formed in place, which is why it suits these. A plain rectangle is better in EPDM rubber, one sheet with no joints across the field. A built up three layer torch on felt system is still right on plenty of them, and single ply belongs on the larger flats behind the commercial frontages.

What every one of them needs. Lead at the abutment, a chase cut in a mortar joint rather than across a soft brick, a parapet, a coping and a cavity tray formed rather than sealed, and a collar round every skylight, lantern, Velux, hatch, soil pipe and vent pipe. The gutter, hopper and downpipe get checked too, since a blocked one backs water up under the trim and reads as a roof failure from inside.

And the build up underneath. On a solid wall building this matters more, not less. A warm roof puts PIR insulation above the deck with the vapour control layer under it, keeping the dew point clear of the joists so you do not trade a leak for condensation and interstitial damp. A ventilated cold roof is still fine over a store. BS 6229 is the code of practice. A dormer cheek is a day, a back addition with a new deck two or three working days.

A Lyndhurst flat roof gets no rate per square metre from us. A flat roof is decided by what is under the covering and how you get to it.

The way in. A back addition behind a Victorian house may only be reachable through a side passage or through the house. A dormer two storeys up needs scaffold. A roof over a shop yard on the High Street means working round deliveries and opening hours. A garage or single storey extension usually comes off a tower. The work at height rules put access on its own line.

The deck. Older back additions were often boarded in softwood planks, later ones in chipboard or ply. Dry, sound boards can take a new covering. Wet chipboard or soft ply comes off, and lifting a corner before quoting tells us which.

Falls and edges. Plenty of old flat roofs in Lyndhurst were laid almost level, so water ponds on them. New firrings to give a real fall, and forming every upstand where the roof meets brick or slate, every outlet and every edge trim, is where the time goes and where most leaks begin.

The system. Felt in layers, a single ply membrane or a liquid system differ in cost and in how long they last on a shaded roof under trees.

Ask any other quote which system and how many layers, whether the deck is replaced or covered over, and whether the scaffold and skip are included.

From Boscombe, where our base is, to Lyndhurst is 14.9 miles. The flat roofs we cover run from the village to Emery Down, Bank, Minstead and the SO43 side of the Forest; planning there is with the New Forest National Park Authority, and building control is done by New Forest District Council.

The firm is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen, the owner, gets up on your flat roof, lifts a corner and prices it himself. A Checkatrade customer they verified rated us 10 out of 10. You pay nothing for the site visit or the itemised quote in writing. Before you book a visit in Lyndhurst, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Lyndhurst 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.