Flat roofing in New Milton

Garages, singly and in courts. A run of garages behind a terrace is really one long flat roof with several owners, and it fails as one. Most are three layer felt, two underlays and a mineral cap sheet, on a plywood or chipboard deck. Where the deck is dry it is a strip and re-lay in EPDM rubber or a modern torch on system, and where a whole run is going, single ply welded at the laps is often the tidier answer.

Back additions and extensions. These are the ones that leak into a room you care about. GRP fibreglass suits them where there are kerbs, steps and awkward corners, because it is laid wet and forms the upstands and edge trim in one piece. EPDM suits a plain rectangle, one sheet with bonded seams and almost nothing to fail. Either way the deck is checked first: plywood, OSB or chipboard on joists, with firrings setting the falls.

Roofs over shops and the flats above them. Awkward access, no route for materials, and usually a parapet with an internal outlet nobody has cleared in years. Those roofs drain to one point, so a blockage turns them into a tank and the first sign is a damp patch in a flat below. We re-form the outlet, check the coping and the cavity tray, and dress a lead cover flashing into a chase at the abutment rather than trusting mastic.

Salt, and what it eats. Under three kilometres from the water, the membrane is rarely the first thing to go. It is the aluminium edge trim, the fixings holding it, the clips and a galvanised outlet or hopper. Once a trim has corroded and lifted, wind gets under the edge and the covering follows. So on this side of the patch we specify non ferrous or stainless fixings and trims that will survive, and say so on the quote.

Insulation and the damp that is not a leak. A warm roof puts PIR over the deck with a taped vapour control layer under it, keeping the timber above the dew point rather than below it. A cold roof leaves it between the joists and must be ventilated, or condensation and interstitial damp ruin the decking without a drop coming through. BS 6229 covers both. The usual repairs are blisters and bubbles, a split or crack, a lifted or failed seam, and ponding and standing water where a fall was never formed, which tapered insulation corrects. Then the drip, the apron, a rooflight, lantern or Velux kerb, any soil pipe or vent pipe through the deck, and the rainwater outlet and downpipe that have to take what the roof sheds.

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 roof over a shop with no rear access, a garage in a court behind a terrace and a back addition on a semi are three very different mornings before any covering comes off. 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.

We cover New Milton, Barton on Sea, Bashley, Ashley and the BH25 addresses, with New Forest District Council as the planning authority. 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.