Flat roofing in Poole

Extensions, garages and the roof over the bay. Most flat roofs in Poole are over a single storey rear extension, a garage, a porch or the small roof above a bay window. The covering is usually torch on felt, an older built up three layer system with a mineral cap sheet.

Stripping it is where the survey really starts: the deck underneath decides the job. Sound plywood or OSB takes a new covering straight away. Chipboard that has been damp for years sags between the joists, so it comes off and new decking goes down first. Then it is EPDM rubber in one sheet, GRP fibreglass laid wet on the boards, a fresh torch on felt, or single ply on a larger roof.

Water that sits rather than leaves. Ponding is the commonest fault on a Poole roof of this age. Standing water works at every lap and seam and freezes them open in a cold snap. Sometimes the fall was never laid, sometimes firrings or tapered insulation have been squashed flat, and sometimes the rainwater outlet has blocked or been built over by a later extension. We put the falls back with firrings so the water runs to an outlet instead of pooling, and BS 6229:2025 on flat roofs sets the minimum. We check the gutter, hopper and downpipe as well, because a good roof discharging into a blocked hopper still soaks the wall.

Upstands, trims and seams. Flat roofs rarely fail in the middle. They go at the edge trim, the drip, the apron, the kerb around an opening and at the laps. On felt that is a blister, a bubble or a split; on single ply a lifted or failed seam where the weld was rushed; on fibreglass a crack at a sharp internal angle. We cut back to sound material, form the upstand to a proper height, and weld or bond the seam so you end up with one surface rather than a patch on an old one.

Openings and abutments. A rooflight, a lantern, a Velux, an old skylight, a hatch or a soil and vent pipe is a hole somebody chose to make, and each one wants a kerb and a collar rather than a ring of mastic. Where the roof runs into a wall we chase in a cover flashing in lead. On a parapet we check the coping and whether a cavity tray sits behind it, because without one the water goes into the wall and the roof gets the blame.

Warm roof or cold roof. Older flat roofs around Poole are cold roofs: insulation between the joists and a void above that was meant to breathe and rarely does. That is where condensation collects, and interstitial damp rots the deck from below while the covering still looks sound. When we rebuild one we build it warm, with PIR above the deck on a vapour control layer, keeping the deck and the joists on the warm side of the dew point.

A flat roof is not priced by the square metre. Stripping the old covering and laying the membrane is the quick part. What is under it, and how you get to it, decide the job.

The deck. A lot of Poole flat roofs from the post-war decades sit on chipboard or old ply. If it has been wet for years it gives underfoot and has to come off. That is the biggest swing in any flat roof price, and nobody can see it from the ground or from a photograph.

The falls. Water should run to an outlet or a gutter, not sit in the middle. Where a roof ponds, firrings go in to set a proper fall before the new covering. That adds a day, and it stops the same failure coming back.

The system. Felt, EPDM rubber and GRP fibreglass cost different amounts and suit different roofs. A plain garage roof suits a single sheet of EPDM. A roof with a rooflight, a parapet and lots of upstands may be better in GRP. Every upstand, outlet and edge trim is priced on its own.

Getting to it. A single storey extension in Poole is a tower job. A roof above two storeys, or on a block of flats, needs a scaffold that stands the whole time the deck is open, and it is a working platform like any other, so the work at height rules make that a priced line.

When you compare quotes, ask whether the deck is being replaced or covered over, whether the falls are being corrected, how many layers the system has, whether the skip is included, and whether the insulation will meet building regulations.

A conservation area covers part of the town centre, and it changes exactly one thing about a flat roof: how it looks. Putting felt back where felt was is maintenance and nobody needs to hear about it.

Changing the appearance of a roof that can be seen from the street, adding a run of rooflights or a lantern, or running a bright new trim along a parapet is a different conversation, and it is worth a phone call to the planners before anything is ordered rather than after. BCP Council keeps the list of conservation areas, so you can check your own address in a couple of minutes.

In practice most flat roofs in Poole sit behind a parapet or at the back over an extension, where nothing is visible from the pavement at all. There the choice is purely technical and you can specify whatever suits the roof. Where it genuinely is visible, a dark mineral cap sheet or a matt EPDM tends to pass without argument where a shiny metal trim does not, so it is worth knowing which of those situations you are in before you start comparing quotes.

Our base is at Wolverton Road in Boscombe, 6.7 miles from Poole town. Flat roofs in Hamworthy, Creekmoor, Oakdale and the blocks round Longfleet all come under BCP Council, which also takes the building notice. Thomas Hannen owns the business.

He looks at every flat roof himself before a price goes on paper. You can check us at Companies House: Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, company number 15471719, registered in England and Wales. On Checkatrade, a verified customer rated the work 10 out of 10. Nothing is charged for the site visit or for the itemised quote in writing. Before you book a visit in Poole, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Poole 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.