Flat Roofing in Owermoigne

The lean-to behind the cottage. This is the one that leaks, and nearly always at the top, where the newer roof runs into the older wall. On rubble or render you cannot always cut a clean chase, so rather than force a cover flashing into a wall that will not hold it, we work lead over an apron and tuck it into a raked out bed joint. Where there is a parapet the coping comes off, gets re-bedded and a cavity tray goes in behind it. Get that junction right and the rest of the roof is straightforward.

The garage. Detached, flat, felted a long while ago and patched twice since. If the boarding is dry we strip the old covering and bond EPDM down as a single sheet of rubber, cold, no flame near timber and no joints at all out in the field of the roof. Trims with a drip go on the open sides so water is thrown clear of the fascia, and the side against the house or the boundary wall takes an upstand carried up under a flashing.

The porch and the bay. Little roofs, and everybody ignores them until the plaster inside the front door starts to bloom. They are too small to walk on and too fiddly to felt neatly, so GRP is usually the answer: brushed on wet over new plywood, cured into one fibreglass skin, with the edge trims formed as part of the same skin. Nothing to lift, nothing to come unstuck.

The store and the outbuilding. Bigger, plainer, and often carrying a rooflight somebody fitted years ago with a ring of mastic round it. The kerb gets built up properly and the covering dressed over it so the skylight stands above the water rather than sitting in it, and any hatch, soil pipe or vent pipe gets a collar instead of a smear. Across a wide open span, single ply welded at the laps is the sensible covering. Where people climb about on the roof, three layer built up felt finished with a torched mineral cap sheet is what we would fit. Blisters, bubbles, splits and lifted seams are repairs in any of these: back to sound material, a fresh piece bonded or welded across it, the edge dressed down flat.

What is under all four. Every one of those roofs is a deck on joists. Chipboard that has taken water for years has nothing left in it, ply that gives underfoot is going the same way, and OSB is what we put back. With the boarding up we look along the joist ends and re-cut the fall with firrings or tapered insulation so water arrives at an outlet instead of standing still. Where most of the covering is being renewed the insulation standard applies, so it is worth building warm: PIR above the deck, vapour control layer under it, the dew point kept out of the timber, rather than a cold roof relying on a ventilation gap staying clear for good. BS 6229 and Approved Document L are the references. The outlet, hopper, gutter and downpipe get cleared and checked before we put a price on any covering.

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 garage in a village plot, a lean-to on the back of a cottage and a flat roof over a converted outbuilding are three different jobs before anything is unrolled. 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 Owermoigne, Crossways, Winfrith Newburgh, Warmwell and the villages across DT2, out from Bournemouth. 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.