Flat roofing in New Milton

Garages, singly and in courts. A run of garages behind a New Milton 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 New Milton 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. In New Milton, 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.

The deck comes first. Most flat roofs on New Milton's post-war and eighties houses were laid on chipboard or ply. A sound deck takes a new covering straight on. Chipboard that has been wet swells and goes soft, and all of it comes off. That is the biggest swing in the price, which is why we test before quoting.

Warm roof or cold. Once most of a covering is renewed, the insulation has to meet Part L. Over an unheated garage it may not arise, but over a kitchen extension or a bedroom it means a warm roof build-up with boards above the deck, which lifts every upstand and edge trim with it.

Falls and outlets. A lot of ponding in New Milton comes from a fall that was never there, or an outlet built over when next door extended. Firrings to put the fall back cost more than laying a membrane, and each outlet, upstand and edge trim is priced on its own.

Access and exposure. A garage comes off a tower, a two storey back addition wants a scaffold, and a block needs a platform for as long as the deck is open. The work at height rules are why that is a line on the quote. On the seaward side, edge trims and fixings take extra care against wind and salt.

Ask anyone else pricing it which system and how many layers, whether the deck is being renewed or covered over, and whether the falls are being corrected.

New Milton is an eight mile run from Boscombe, where our base is, and we cover the town, Barton on Sea, Bashley, Ashley and the rest of BH25. Building control and planning both go through New Forest District Council.

You would be dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, company number 15471719, registered in England and Wales. The owner, Thomas Hannen, is the one who climbs up, checks your deck and writes the price. On Checkatrade, one verified customer marked us 10 out of 10. You pay nothing for the survey visit, and nothing for the itemised quote he writes up. Before you book a visit in New Milton, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in New Milton 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.