Flat Roofing in Merritown

Edges, trims and fixings. On an exposed roof the edge detail is the whole job. An edge trim has to be properly fixed with a drip that throws water clear, not a strip of beading tacked on. Laps get bonded or welded full width rather than spot stuck, and the perimeter is fixed to a schedule instead of by eye. Where the covering has already lifted, we cut back and re-form the edge rather than glue it down again.

Coverings. EPDM rubber lays as one sheet with bonded laps and no flame. GRP fibreglass goes on wet over new plywood and cures as a single skin, which gives nothing for the wind to catch. Three layer built up felt, torch on under a mineral cap sheet, is the toughest walked surface. Single ply is welded and belongs on the larger buildings out this way.

Repairs, and the honest limit. A blister, a bubble, a crack or a failed seam is a patch, cut back to sound material and bonded or welded in. When a covering has gone brittle everywhere and splits under your thumb, one more repair only moves the leak, and we will say so rather than take the work.

Deck, joists and falls. Chipboard decking that has been damp for years comes off and stays off. Plywood that gives underfoot goes too, with OSB going back in most cases. The joists are checked while it is open and the falls are put right with firrings or tapered insulation, so water reaches an outlet instead of pooling where the wind pushes it.

Warm roof or cold roof. A warm roof puts PIR above the deck with the vapour control layer under it and keeps the dew point out of the timber. A cold roof holds insulation between the joists and has to breathe, or condensation and interstitial damp rot the boards from beneath. BS 6229 covers how it is built and Approved Document L the standard, with the bigger jobs going through building control.

Abutments, openings and rainwater. An upstand at a wall wants a cover flashing into a chase, or lead over an apron on an older detail, and a parapet needs its coping bedded with a cavity tray behind. A rooflight or a lantern needs a kerb built up so the skylight stands clear of standing water, and a Velux, a loft hatch, a soil pipe or a vent pipe each get a collar. The rainwater outlet, hopper, gutter and downpipe get checked last.

A Merritown flat roof has no rate per square metre, because the area is the simple part. The deck. Sound ply or boards will take a new covering. Chipboard that has soaked up water for years, or ply that flexes when you stand on it, has to come off, and nobody can tell which from the ground. That is why the deck is checked before a figure is written.

Falls and outlets. Water that sits on a flat roof finds every weak lap. A lot of older roofs were laid almost dead level, and on ground that already holds surface water the outlet, and the downpipe it feeds, need to take the water well clear of the wall. Firrings to correct the fall and a new outlet each add a line, and they are what stops the roof ponding.

Edges in the wind. Weather from the south west gets under a lifted edge trim and peels a covering back. The upstands against the house wall, the trims and the drip into the gutter are where most failures start, and BS 6229 sets out how they should be detailed, so each is priced on its own.

Access. A tower on firm ground goes up quickly. A roof above a two storey wall, or one you can only reach across soft ground, needs more, and the work at height rules make that a proper line.

Put these to anyone else quoting: which membrane system, and how many layers? Is the deck being replaced or covered over? Are the scaffold and the skip included?

Our base is in Boscombe and Merritown is 3.6 miles up the road, in the Commons ward of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. Alongside it we look after flat roofs in Matchams, Hurn and Parley, and across Bournemouth.

Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is registered in England and Wales under company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen, who owns it, is the person who climbs up to your deck and puts the price together. A verified customer has rated the firm 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. We charge nothing to come out, and nothing for the itemised written quote that follows. Before you book a visit in Merritown, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Merritown 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.