Flat roofing in Sandleheath
Extension, utility and garage roofs around Sandleheath and Fordingbridge, built so the room underneath stays dry.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Last updated
On paper nothing about a flat roof in Sandleheath is complicated. No conservation area, barely anything listed, and putting the same covering back is maintenance. The awkward part is under the membrane, where the boards and the fall decide what the job really is.
The flat roofs are the back extension, the utility, the garage, and the link between an older cottage and something bolted on later. A fair slice of Sandleheath went up before the war, so plenty of these roofs run into a solid wall with no cavity in it, and that changes the flashing rather than the covering.
Sandleheath flat roofs usually show trouble in the same few places. A ceiling has marked. The felt has gone hard and opened along a lap. Or the room beneath streams with water every winter, which very often is not a leak at all. Each gets looked at the same way, from on top, with a corner lifted. If water is running into the room beneath now, ring 07435 839745 and we will help you tell a leak from condensation.
Specifying it
Which system, and what has to be right underneath it
Pick the covering for the roof, not for the van. EPDM rubber comes as a single sheet, so out across the field of a Sandleheath garage roof there is nothing to fail. GRP fibreglass is formed in place and pays for itself where there are kerbs, an outlet and a rooflight to work round.
Built up felt, three layers with a torch on mineral cap sheet, is still a proper roof and the toughest of them to walk on. Single ply is welded and wants a wide open span. Shape and traffic decide it.
The deck has the casting vote. Plywood, OSB or chipboard, and on the older Sandleheath additions plain boards over the joists. Chipboard swells the first time it gets wet and stays swollen, so a dip in a roof is usually a board telling you something. We lift a corner rather than guess. A dry deck takes a new covering and a soft one has to come out first, and nothing on a phone photograph will tell you which of the two you own.
A fall, or you are back in five winters. Firrings over the joists, or tapered insulation built into a warm roof, tilt the surface enough to send water at the rainwater outlet. Ponding is not a leak in itself, but it holds grit and moss on a surface that never dries, and that is where a split begins. A puddle in one corner means the fall and the outlet no longer agree. A patch that gives like a bubble underfoot means water is already in the boards.
The wall the roof runs into. An upstand carried high enough up the house wall, a lead cover flashing chased into a mortar joint at the abutment, and on solid walled property in Sandleheath a chase pinned and pointed rather than cut deep. A parapet has its coping bedded and a cavity tray formed behind it, not a run of sealant along the top. This is where the leaks are, which is why a proper quote shows more hours at the edges than out in the middle.
Openings, and the pipes below them. A skylight, a lantern, a Velux, an access hatch, a soil pipe or a vent pipe each get a kerb raised or a collar formed. The front edge gets a drip and an apron so water clears the fascia. Then the gutter, the hopper and the downpipe are run through before anyone blames the covering, because a full outlet and a finished roof look identical from a bedroom window.
Cold roof or warm roof, settled by the room. A garage is happy ventilated, with insulation between the joists and air moving above it. Put a utility, a kitchen or a bedroom under the same build up and the vapour reaches a cold deck, condenses on it, and you have interstitial damp with nothing showing on the surface. So the PIR goes above the deck with the vapour control layer beneath it, which is what BS 6229 sets out. A garage is a day. An extension with a new deck is two or three working days.
How it runs
A flat roof on a Sandleheath extension, from survey to last trim
Thomas gets up on the roof, checks where it ponds, feels for soft spots in the deck and, where he can, cuts back a corner of the covering to see the boards. The quote is written with access, stripping the covering, any new deck or firrings, the insulation, the membrane, every upstand, outlet and edge trim, and disposal as separate items. One set of paperwork covers the strip and the new roof.
Flat roofs in Sandleheath are mostly on rear extensions, garages and dormers added to post-war semis and bungalows, and on the back of older cottages. A tower does most of them. The deck is never left open overnight: what is stripped in a day is covered that evening, the ground is swept, and the old felt goes with us. If the boards are worse than the cut corner showed, we stop and send you a picture with a price for the extra boards.
Sandleheath is outside the National Park, so New Forest District Council is the planning authority; if you are near the boundary, the Park property map will confirm it. Putting the same kind of covering back counts as maintenance, so no permission is needed, and the Planning Portal shows where permitted development ends. Replace most of the covering, though, and it becomes a renovated thermal element under Approved Document L, so the insulation is upgraded and building control gets a building notice or full plans.
Cost
What sets the price of a flat roof on a village extension
We do not price a Sandleheath flat roof by the square metre. What sits under the covering decides the job. The deck. Chipboard decks on older extensions often go soft once water has got in through a split. Sound boards can take a new covering. Wet or sagging boards come off and are replaced, and you only find out by looking underneath, which is why a corner is opened before pricing.
The warm roof upgrade. Once most of the covering comes off, Part L expects insulation. On a warm roof that goes on top of the deck, which raises the finished level. Upstands at door thresholds, window sills and abutments may need altering to suit, and that is priced separately.
Falls and outlets. Many older flat roofs in Sandleheath were laid almost level. Setting a proper fall with firrings, and making sure the outlet leads somewhere that drains, takes more time than the membrane itself. Each upstand, outlet and edge trim is its own line.
Getting to it. A garage at the end of a drive is easy. A roof squeezed between a cottage and a boundary wall is not. The work at height rules make the platform a priced line.
Before you choose, ask what system is proposed and how many layers, whether the deck is being replaced, how the falls are set, and whether the skip is in.
If it is coming through
Rain dripping through a split or blistered flat roof
Ring rather than filling in the form. A split, a blister that has burst or a covering lifted at the wall puts rain straight through to the ceiling below, and a soaked deck keeps rotting after the weather clears. Do not climb onto it to look.
Put a bucket down, and if the plaster is bowing, get people and furniture out of that room. On the first visit we put a temporary cover on and get it watertight, then open up enough to see how far the wet has spread before we price the new roof. Tell us when you ring whether water is coming through now. Scheduled work is Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Should nobody pick up, we get back to you as quickly as we are able.
Worth knowing
The river rule, and what it does not touch
Sandleheath drains to the River Avon, and there is a planning rule in this catchment that catches people out halfway through a project. Where a scheme creates new overnight accommodation, such as a new home, an annexe or a holiday let, the council has to be satisfied about nutrients reaching the river. Re-covering a roof does not do that. Nor does mending a leak, a new covering on a garage or, as a rule, an extension to your own house. Anybody telling you otherwise has it wrong.
What does matter for the roof itself is if the flat roofed extension you are having re-covered is going to become a heated room later. Say so while we are there. It changes what gets built now, because the insulation, the deck, the ventilation and the ceiling below are all different under a warm, lived-in room, and building the warm roof once is far cheaper than stripping a new covering off in a couple of years.
Who you are dealing with
The flat roofers covering Sandleheath and the SP6 villages
We cover Sandleheath, Alderholt, Fordingbridge, Damerham and the SP6 villages west of the Avon. Sandleheath is 14 miles from our Boscombe base on Wolverton Road, and New Forest District Council is the authority. The roof would be done by Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, company number 15471719, registered in England and Wales. Before you book a visit in Sandleheath, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Thomas Hannen owns the company and is the person who gets up on your flat roof and prices it. A verified customer has rated us 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The site visit is free, and the written, itemised quote is free too.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Sandleheath?
Most repairs in Sandleheath 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.
| Question | In Sandleheath |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest District Council is the planning authority for Sandleheath. The National Park boundary runs close by, and the Park's property map shows which side an address falls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Sandleheath, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, Sandleheath has listed buildings. If yours is one, or stands in the grounds of one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Sandleheath. |
Questions
Questions about flat roofs in Sandleheath
Does the whole covering have to come off to put a fall back?
Usually, because the firrings sit on the joists and the covering sits on the firrings. On a warm roof the fall can be formed in the insulation instead, which sometimes saves stripping down to bare boards. We measure what fall you have on the visit and tell you which of the two you are looking at.
Does building it warm raise the roof?
A little: the insulation goes on top of the boards, so the finished level comes up and the upstands and the edge trim have to come up with it. Where a door or a window sits low above the roof, that is the first thing we check, because it can change the design.
Is felt the poor relation now?
No, a proper three layer built up system with a torch on mineral cap sheet is a serious roof, and it takes foot traffic better than most. What gave felt its name is a single layer rolled over a tired deck, which is a different thing altogether.
What happens if it rains the day you strip it?
We only open what we can close. The deck comes off in bays and is made watertight before we leave, and neither GRP nor a bonded sheet will take on damp boards, so a wet week moves the finishing date rather than the price.
Nearby, and next door
Flat roofing near Sandleheath
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Tell us the address and what you have noticed, and whether the room under it is used. We will look and put an itemised price in writing.