Flat roofing in Ridge

Rear extensions and garden rooms. The usual flat roof on the back of a house in Ridge. Where the deck is sound we take it back to boards and lay EPDM rubber, one sheet with bonded seams and very little to fail, or GRP fibreglass where there are kerbs, steps or a tricky corner, because it is laid wet and forms the upstand and edge trim in one piece. Single ply, welded at the laps, is for the bigger areas.

Garages, workshops and stores. Usually felt in three built up layers under a mineral cap sheet, often the original covering, and usually failing at a corner or where it turns down over the fascia. A modern torch on system on a dry deck is a sound answer on a big plain span. What decides it is the boards: plywood, OSB or chipboard on joists, and chipboard that has taken water does not recover.

Upstands, and why they are the local weak point. Wind driven rain does not fall on a roof, it is pushed at it. So it gets behind a covering that was only turned up a couple of courses, over a door threshold that was set too low, and under an edge trim that has worked loose. When we quote in Ridge, the height of every upstand, the fixing of the trim and the way the apron is dressed into the wall are itemised, because that is where these roofs actually leak.

Falls, and where the water leaves. Firrings create the falls across the joists, and where none were fitted you get ponding and standing water at every low spot. Tapered insulation corrects a fall from above. The drip over the fascia, the rainwater outlet, the hopper, the gutter and the downpipe then take all of it, and one blocked outlet is enough to hold water over every lap and seam on a small roof.

Warm roof, cold roof and the junctions. A warm roof takes PIR over the deck over a vapour control layer, so the timber sits clear of the dew point. A cold roof keeps the insulation between the joists and has to be ventilated, or condensation and interstitial damp spoil the decking without a leak. BS 6229 covers both. At an abutment a lead cover flashing goes into a chase cut in the joint, not a bead of mastic, and a parapet has its coping and cavity tray checked. Blisters, bubbles, splits, a crack at a kerb and a lifted or failed seam are the everyday repairs, along with rooflight, lantern and Velux kerbs and any soil pipe or vent pipe through the deck.

We do not price a Ridge roof by the square metre. The area is the easy part; what sits under the membrane decides the job. The deck. A sound deck can take a new covering straight on. Chipboard that has been wet for years, or ply that gives under your foot, has to be replaced, and nobody can tell which you have from a photograph. That is why a corner gets lifted before the quote is written.

The falls and the outlets. Most flat roofs that fail were laid dead level, or drain to an outlet that has since been blocked or built over. Setting a proper fall with firrings takes longer than laying the covering. Each upstand, outlet and edge trim is priced on its own, because that is where both the hours and the leaks are.

Where the water ends up. A downpipe from a flat roof that dumps onto the ground beside an extension wall keeps the ground at the footing soaked, so we price taking it to a drain or a soakaway, which is a Approved Document H question.

Getting to it. A tower on firm ground is one thing, a platform on soft garden another. The work at height rules make access its own line.

When you compare quotes, ask what system and how many layers, whether the deck is being replaced, how the falls are being set and whether the skip is included.

We come out to Ridge, Stoborough, Arne and the BH20 addresses on the harbour side of Wareham. From our base at 80a Wolverton Road in Boscombe that is 11.9 miles. Dorset Council is the planning authority and handles building control for a re-covered roof.

You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, a company registered in England and Wales, number 15471719. Thomas Hannen owns it, and he is the person who comes out, lifts the corner of your felt and prices the roof. A verified customer rated us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. Both the site visit and the written quote are free. Before you book a visit in Ridge, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Ridge 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.