Flat roofing in Redlynch
Flat roof repairs, re-covering and warm roof build ups across Redlynch and the SP5 villages. Free site visit, free written itemised quote.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
A flat roof on a Redlynch bungalow extension is usually a straightforward job with one awkward part: the point where it meets the main roof. Get that height and that flashing right and the rest of it looks after itself.
The calls tend to come in three shapes. A conservatory or sun room ceiling has marked in one corner. The covering has blistered badly through a hot summer and never gone back down. Or somebody has been up a ladder and found the surface torn where it turns a corner. Bungalows make up close to a third of the housing here, and single storey living means single storey additions, so the roofs are a rear extension, a utility, a sun room, a porch, a garage or the cheek of a dormer cut into an older roof. Because they are low, most can be looked at properly without much fuss, which is why we would rather come and see than talk in generalities.
The work
Bungalow extensions, garages and dormer cheeks
Repairs. Cracks at a fold, blisters that have burst, laps that have opened, trims that have loosened and outlets that have blocked. Those five cover most of what we get called to, and every one of them is hours rather than days. The blocked outlet is the commonest of the lot. We work back along the falls to find where water is really entering, because on a bungalow it can travel a long way across a ceiling before it shows itself.
Re-covering a single storey roof. When the surface has hardened past use it comes off. EPDM rubber bonds down as one sheet, which suits the plain rectangle over a garage. GRP fibreglass is laid wet and cures to a single skin with its own trims, so it takes traffic and a lot of edge detail. Torch on felt, three layers built up under a mineral cap sheet, handles a roof cut about with upstands. Single ply, welded at the joints, is for the big ones. Two to three working days for a garage or a small extension.
The deck, and how thick the new roof ends up. Plywood, OSB or chipboard under there, and the chipboard is usually what has gone soft. Firm decking is covered over, soft decking comes out and the joists get inspected. Water lying about after rain means no fall, or an outlet that has been buried, and firrings or tapered insulation correct it. Then the question that really matters on a low bungalow roof: warm or cold. Rigid PIR above the deck with a vapour control layer under it keeps the timber above the dew point and shuts out interstitial condensation, which is what BS 6229:2025 on flat roofs and Approved Document L both want. It also raises the finished surface, so we measure the height available before committing to it.
Abutments and openings. An upstand tall enough to matter, with a cover flashing chased into the wall or dressed under the tiles above it. A lead apron where lead is already there. A cavity tray where the wall has a cavity. Parapet and coping made good. A kerb built for a rooflight, a lantern, a Velux, a hatch, a soil pipe or a vent pipe. Drip and edge trim, and the gutter, hopper and downpipe below, which on a low roof is often the same gutter the main roof already uses.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Same team from first visit to last, one person to ring, and no sub-contracting your work out to somebody you have never met. The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: access, stripping the old covering, any new deck or firrings, the insulation, the membrane and each upstand, outlet and edge trim, and disposal on separate lines, so you can compare it properly against anyone else's.
Nothing is left open or unusable overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up once we start that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.
Redlynch is in Wiltshire. A re-cover in the same form is maintenance: no planning permission, permitted development covers it, and Planning Portal guidance marks the edge. Raise the roof line, or deck over a habitable room, and building control applies through building notice or an application with full plans. There is no conservation area over the village, and where a building is listed, other permissions you may require is the place to start.
Cost
What decides the price of a flat roof
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 beside the drive, a bungalow extension tucked under the eaves, and a dormer cheek on an older roof are three different jobs at the same area. 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.
If it is coming through
Water through a flat roof
Ring rather than use the form. A flat roof that has split, blistered or lifted at an upstand puts water straight onto a ceiling, and once the deck is wet the damage carries on after the rain stops. The first visit is about getting it covered and dry, and we price the permanent job once we can see how much of the deck has gone. Redlynch is out towards the Forest edge for us, but nothing that is actively letting water in waits for a gap in the diary. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
On a bungalow, the height at the abutment is the whole job
A single storey extension on a bungalow meets the main roof low down, often only just above the gutter line. That leaves very little room for the covering to turn up the wall, and an upstand that is too short is the single commonest reason these roofs leak. Water driven up the slope, or backed up behind a blocked outlet, only has to rise a little to get over the top of it and straight onto the ceiling below.
Two things follow from that. First, if the existing upstand is already marginal, building the new roof up thicker with insulation above the deck makes it shorter still, so the height has to be measured and thought about before a system is chosen rather than discovered on the second day. Sometimes the right answer is insulating below the deck instead, with the vapour control layer detailed properly. Second, the flashing at that junction has to be chased and dressed rather than sealed over, because on a low abutment there is no second line of defence. Ask any quote how tall the upstand will be and how the flashing is fixed. It tells you a lot.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Redlynch, Morgan's Vale, Woodfalls, Downton and the SP5 villages along the western edge of the Forest. 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.
Questions
Redlynch questions we get asked
My extension roof meets the main roof very low down. Is that a problem?
It can be. There has to be enough height for the covering to turn up the wall or the tiles and be flashed over. If it is tight, we say so at the survey and work out whether the roof can be built up at all, or whether the insulation is better placed below the deck.
What is the difference between a repair and a re-cover?
A repair fixes a defect: a split, a burst blister, a failed seam, a loose trim, a blocked outlet. A re-cover replaces the whole surface, and usually corrects the falls while it is open. The deck decides which is worth doing, and we lift a corner to find out rather than guess.
Do you use a scaffold on a bungalow?
Often a tower is enough on a single storey roof, which keeps the cost down. Anything over a two storey wall, or where the ground falls away, wants a proper scaffold. Either way it is an itemised line, because the platform has to stand while the deck is open.
Can I have a rooflight put in at the same time?
Yes, and while the roof is off is the right moment. A rooflight, a lantern or a Velux needs a kerb built up off the deck so the covering dresses up and over it. Fitting one into a finished roof later means opening it all up again around the opening.
Nearby, and next door
Flat roofing near Redlynch
Flat roofing nearby
Our other trades in Redlynch
Everything we do in Ringwood Flat roofing, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get a price for your Redlynch flat roof
Tell us the address and what you have noticed. We will come out, measure the abutment, and put an itemised price in writing. No charge, and no obligation.