Flat roofing in Moordown

Kitchen and rear extensions. Plenty of the 1920s and 30s houses in Moordown have had a single storey extension added at the back since, and most were finished with a felt roof on a chipboard or ply deck.

On Moordown roofs, felt of that kind tends to fail at the edges first: the upstand where it meets the house wall, the drip edge over the gutter, and around the soil pipe or a rooflight. If the deck is dry and firm we repair the edge or lay a new covering over it. If it gives underfoot, the deck comes up, new firrings go on to give the roof a proper fall, and it is re-covered. A typical kitchen roof is two to four working days.

Garages. Detached garages in Moordown from the same era often have a thin deck on light joists, and many have been patched so many times the patches are the roof. A garage is the one place a cheaper covering can make sense, and we will say so. If you keep anything valuable in it, or plan to turn it into a room, we price it as a proper warm roof with insulation instead.

Bays, porches and dormers. The flat roof over a front bay or a porch is small, fiddly and usually leaded or felted. We check the lead, the cover flashing chased into the wall above and the lip that sheds water into the gutter. Dormers on the Moordown bungalows and chalet style houses have a flat top that is hard to see from the ground, and the cheeks and apron flashings round them leak as often as the covering.

Warm roof or cold roof. Most older extension roofs in Moordown are cold roofs, with the insulation, if any, between the joists and a ventilated gap above. Done badly, warm air from the kitchen meets the cold deck and condensation soaks it from underneath, which is why a deck can rot with the felt still intact. When we rebuild, we make it a warm roof: a vapour control layer on the deck, PIR insulation board on top, then the membrane, so the dew point sits outside the timber and interstitial condensation has nowhere to form.

Openings and outlets. A skylight, a lantern or a Velux style rooflight, a vent pipe coming through, an access hatch: each is a hole in the membrane and each needs its own kerb and upstand. Ponding and pooling usually come from a roof laid dead level or an outlet sitting higher than the water. We check where the rainwater leaves the roof, whether the downpipe or hopper is taking it, and whether a lifted bubble or a crack by the outlet is where your leak starts.

Which system. EPDM is a single ply rubber sheet, bonded down with the seams kept to a minimum, and suits most extensions. GRP is laid as a resin and glass mat with moulded edge trims, and is good where there is foot traffic or a lot of detailing. Three layer built up felt with a mineral cap sheet still has its place on larger roofs. We follow BS 6229:2025 on flat roofs on falls and outlets, whatever the membrane.

When we would talk you out of it. A blister in the felt that is not leaking does not mean a new roof. Nor does a bit of standing water after rain, if it is gone in a day. We will say when a repair and a watchful eye are the right answer.

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 Moordown, a kitchen extension reached across a back garden, a detached garage you can back a van up to, and a roof behind a shop on Wimborne Road where everything goes up past the flat above are three quite different jobs to get to. 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.

We cover Moordown and the rest of BH9, from the Wimborne Road shops down into Winton and across to Kinson, with BCP Council handling planning and building control. We are based in Boscombe, a little over two miles away.

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 Moordown, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Moordown 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.