Flat Roofing in Rockbourne

We start with the cheapest thing that will hold. A lap that has opened, a bubble standing proud of the boards, two sheets come apart at the weld, an edge trim with its fixings loose: those are repairs.

Old felt is cut back to sound material, primed and welded in beneath a fresh mineral cap sheet. GRP fibreglass is ground back at the crack and laminated again. EPDM rubber is scrubbed clean and bonded flat. Where the covering breaks up under a thumb anywhere you try it, we say so instead of taking money for a patch.

Below it sits plywood, OSB, chipboard, or on older additions plain boarding over the joists. Chipboard drinks water once and never dries back to its old thickness, so a roof with a hollow in it is telling you about its boards and not its felt. Soft ones come out. With everything open the joists get a proper look, and a fall is built back in, with firrings cut over the timbers or tapered insulation where the roof goes back warm, so the surface empties at a rainwater outlet rather than holding a puddle.

Out in Rockbourne the junctions are the real job. Much of the older property is chalk, flint and soft brick, and a chase cut hard into that takes more out of the wall than the leak ever did. So we work over the face instead: lead dressed down onto an apron, or a cover flashing tucked into a joint already there and pointed back. A parapet gets its coping re-bedded and a cavity tray behind. Along every free edge goes a trim with a drip on its underside, which is the only thing stopping water curling back beneath the covering.

What goes back on follows the roof rather than whatever is on the van. EPDM rubber arrives in one piece with its laps bonded cold, no flame near old timber. GRP fibreglass is rolled on wet over fresh ply and hardens into a continuous skin. Built up felt, three layers with the mineral cap sheet torched over, is walked on better than any of them. Single ply is hot air welded and earns its place only across a long open span.

Last comes the room beneath. Over a store or a car, a ventilated cold roof with insulation between the joists is sound enough. Put a kitchen or a bedroom under the same build up and steam off a kettle finds a cold board, settles on the underside and marks the ceiling in a way nobody can tell from a leak. That is condensation, and interstitial damp is what it does to the timber. Building warm turns it round: PIR above the boards, the vapour control layer below them, the dew point outside the structure. BS 6229 sets the build up and Approved Document L the standard. Any rooflight, lantern, Velux, hatch, soil pipe or vent pipe gets a kerb raised or a collar formed before the covering is dressed over it.

We do not price a Rockbourne flat roof by the square metre. The deck and the falls decide the job, not the area. Reaching it. A garage off the lane, a lean-to on the back of a cottage, and a flat roof over a converted outbuilding each need a different platform.

A single storey roof usually works from a tower; anything above a two storey wall needs a scaffold standing for as long as the deck is open. The work at height rules are why access is its own figure.

The deck. Boards that have been wet for years crumble or sag and must be replaced. You cannot tell from below, so Thomas checks before quoting.

Falls and outlets. A roof laid dead flat will pond. Firrings give it a fall towards an outlet, and each upstand, outlet and edge trim is priced on its own because that is where leaks start.

The covering. EPDM, GRP and built-up felt suit different roofs and cost different amounts. A roof over a room wants insulation added while it is open.

Distance. Rockbourne is well out, so deliveries and waste are planned to happen once rather than in several trips.

Ask any other quote which system and how many layers, whether the deck is renewed, whether firrings go in, and whether the skip and access are included.

We are 16 miles from Rockbourne, working from our base in Boscombe near Bournemouth. We cover the village, Sandleheath, Fordingbridge, Damerham and the rest of SP6. The council for planning and building control is New Forest District Council.

You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, and it is Thomas Hannen's business. He is the one who gets up on the roof and sets the price. There is a verified 10 out of 10 from a customer on Checkatrade. The site visit costs nothing, nor does the itemised written quote. Before you book a visit in Rockbourne, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Rockbourne 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.