Flat roofing in Ringwood

Parapet roofs and hidden gutters. On the older Ringwood buildings the flat roof sits behind a parapet, and everything that lands on it has to leave through one or two outlets in the wall. Block one with leaves and the water rises above the upstand and goes straight into the building. So we clear and size the outlets, fit guards, and put an overflow through the parapet so a blockage shows itself down the wall instead of on somebody's ceiling.

The estate roofs. In Ringwood it is felt, in one form or another: a three layer built up system with a mineral cap sheet, or a single torch on layer laid over the previous one. It splits at the creases, blisters where damp was shut in, and lifts at a seam against an upstand. We strip to the deck and lay EPDM rubber in a single sheet where the roof is a plain rectangle, GRP fibreglass where there are kerbs and corners to laminate round, or single ply hot air welded on a long run.

Deck, joists and falls. Plywood, OSB or chipboard decking on joists, with firrings creating the fall. Wet chipboard swells, gives underfoot and comes off. A roof laid dead flat holds standing water, and that ponding shortens a covering far more than the weather does. Where re-firring is impractical we build the fall in tapered insulation. BS 6229 is the code the falls and the drainage come from, and it is the part of the job that decides how long the next covering lasts.

Warm build up over heated rooms. Kitchens, bedrooms and flats in Ringwood all count, and when the covering over one is renewed Part L asks for the insulation to come up too. The sensible place for it is above the deck: vapour control layer, then PIR, then the membrane, which keeps the timber warm all year. Leave it between the joists in the old cold roof arrangement and the boards sit under the dew point, warm air from the room reaches them, and interstitial condensation rots them from above without a drop of rain getting in. Building control are notified and inspect it before it closes.

Junctions and openings. The detailing is where a flat roof is won or lost. At an abutment we cut a chase and dress a lead cover flashing into it, with a cavity tray above on a cavity wall. Anything that breaks through the covering is raised on a kerb first, so the membrane turns up an upstand rather than butting a frame: a rooflight, a lantern, a Velux style flat roof window, a hatch, a soil and vent pipe. The open edges finish over a drip trim, and the rainwater outlet runs to a hopper, a downpipe or the gutter. A garage is a day, an extension two or three working days.

No rate per square metre from us, because what sits under the covering decides the job. Which building it is on. A lot of Ringwood's homes are flats, and a flat roof over a block or behind a shop often has parapet walls, a shared hatch, or no way up except across someone else's space.

A garage on a post-war Ringwood estate comes off a tower in a morning. A rear extension behind a Victorian terrace may need a scaffold carried through the passage. The work at height rules make access a line of its own.

The deck. Chipboard that has been damp for years crumbles when you lift the felt, and ply that flexes underfoot has to come out. Neither shows from below. The deck is the biggest single swing, which is why Thomas looks at it before writing a price.

Falls and outlets. Water that sits on a flat roof finds the weak point. If the roof was laid dead level, firrings go in to give a fall towards an outlet that works. Each upstand against a wall, each outlet and each run of edge trim is priced separately, since those are where flat roofs leak.

The system. EPDM rubber, GRP fibreglass and torch-on felt suit different roofs. A roof you step out onto from a door wants a tougher finish than a garage nobody walks on.

Ask any other firm: is the deck being replaced or covered over, are firrings going in to fix the falls, and are the tower or scaffold and the skip in the price?

Ringwood carries several dozen listed entries, and a good number of them are ordinary looking buildings in and around the town centre rather than landmarks. Plenty of them have a flat roof somewhere at the back, over a rear range or a later addition, which nobody would ever see from the street.

It matters in Ringwood because a listing covers the whole building, not the front of it. On a listed building the covering itself is controlled, so swapping felt for fibreglass or rubber is a change of material and wants consent before the work rather than after. Adding a rooflight to let some light into a back room is the other thing that catches people out. None of that means you have to live with water coming in. We make a leak safe first and then deal with the permanent covering once the position is clear. If you are not sure whether your building is listed, tell us the address at the first visit and we will check it with you rather than guess.

Ringwood is 8 miles from where we are based in Boscombe. We cover the town centre, Poulner and Hightown, and further out Ashley Heath, Burley and the rest of BH24. New Forest District Council is the council for planning and building control.

The firm is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen owns it and will be the one up on your roof pricing the work. One verified customer has scored us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. You pay nothing for the visit or for the itemised quote that follows it. Before you book a visit in Ringwood, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Ringwood 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.