Flat roofing in Sixpenny Handley
Flat roof repairs, re-covering and warm roof build ups in Sixpenny Handley 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.
Ring us about a flat roof in Sixpenny Handley and the first thing we want to know is where the water is supposed to go. Nine times out of ten the answer explains the leak, and it costs a repair rather than a new roof.
The calls here are usually one of three. A windy night has torn a corner up and left it flapping. A ceiling has marked and the mark has not dried out since. Or the water simply is not clearing off the roof any more. The roofs themselves are the usual village mix: a garage, a rear extension, a utility off the kitchen, a porch, a bay top, or the flat piece between two pitched roofs where something was added later. All three complaints are worth looking at properly, because on a flat roof what you can see and what is actually wrong are often two different things. We get up there safely, follow the falls to the outlet, check every abutment, and photograph what we find so the quote makes sense when you read it.
In practice
What each job involves, and how long it takes
A repair, and what that means. Clearing a silted outlet is often an hour. Patching a cracked fold, a burst blister, an opened lap or a loose edge trim is a morning. Cutting out a perished upstand and forming it again is most of a day. Those four account for the bulk of what a flat roof ever needs, and none of them is a re-cover. We follow the falls back from the stain rather than opening the roof up where the ceiling has marked.
A re-cover, and what that means. The old surface comes off, the deck is inspected and the falls are corrected, and only then does the new covering go down. EPDM rubber, one bonded sheet with no seam across the field, for a plain garage. GRP fibreglass, laid wet and cured to a single skin with the trims part of it, for anything that gets walked on. Torch on felt, three layers under a mineral cap sheet, for a roof full of detail. Single ply, hot air welded, for a large span. A small roof can be a day, a garage or an extension two to three working days.
A new deck, and what that means. Plywood, OSB and chipboard are what we lift, and it is the chipboard that fails. Firm decking gets covered over. Soft decking is taken out, the joists inspected and new boards laid. This is the point at which the falls get set with firrings or with insulation cut on a taper, so water leaves the roof instead of sitting on it. It is also the sensible moment to move the insulation above the deck: rigid PIR with a vapour control layer beneath it, timber held above the dew point, interstitial condensation designed out. BS 6229:2025 on flat roofs explains why, and Approved Document L applies wherever a room sits below.
And the detailing, which is priced one item at a time. Upstand and chased cover flashing. Lead apron where lead is already there. Cavity tray where the wall has a cavity. Parapet and coping. A kerb built for a rooflight, a lantern, a Velux, a hatch, a soil pipe or a vent pipe. Drip and edge trim. Gutter, hopper and downpipe below. Every one of those is somewhere a leak can start, and every one is a separate line on the quote.
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.
Sixpenny Handley is in Dorset Council's area. Re-covering an existing roof as it stands is maintenance: no planning permission, and permitted development covers it, with Planning Portal guidance marking the limit. A new deck over a habitable room brings building control in under building notice or an application with full plans. There is no conservation area over the village, and where a building is listed, listed building consent comes before any change of material.
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 on an open yard, an extension reached only through the house, and a roof between two pitched slopes are three different jobs at the same size. 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. It is a run up onto the Chase for us, but a leak into a room is dealt with first and priced afterwards. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Up on the Chase, a flat roof can be looked down on
These villages sit in the Cranborne Chase National Landscape, where the way things look in open country carries more weight than it does in a town. On most flat roofs that changes nothing, because a roof at the back of a house is out of sight from anywhere public and a like for like re-cover is simply maintenance. But this is high, open ground with footpaths and lanes above the houses, so a flat roof here is more likely than most to be seen from above rather than not seen at all.
Where that is true, the finish is worth a thought. A bright white or a glossy surface reads for a long way across this kind of landscape, where a dark grey mineral cap sheet or a matt finish disappears. The same applies to a big rooflight or a lantern, which throws light upward at night in a place where people notice it. None of this is a rule and none of it stops the work. It is simply the difference between a roof nobody looks at twice and one that stands out, and we would rather raise it before you choose than after it is on.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Sixpenny Handley, Pentridge, Woodyates, Cranborne and the SP5 villages on the Chase. 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
Sixpenny Handley questions we get asked
You are a fair way out. Will you still come and look?
Yes. The site visit and the written quote are free wherever you are on our patch, and distance does not change that. We will give you a realistic day rather than promise a morning, and anything actively letting water in gets seen ahead of a job that can wait.
Can a flat roof last as long as a tiled one?
Not usually, but it lasts a great deal longer when it is laid to a proper fall with the detail done well. Most of the roofs we replace early failed because water sat on them, not because the covering itself wore out. That is why we would rather correct the falls than simply re-surface.
What do I ask a competing quote?
Ask which system it is and how many layers. Ask whether the deck is being renewed or covered over, and whether the falls are being corrected. Ask how the upstands, outlets and edge trims are detailed, and whether the access and the disposal are in the figure.
How long does the whole thing take?
A repair is often the same day. A garage or a small extension is two to three working days. Renewing the deck, adding firrings or forming a kerb for a rooflight adds to that, and a bonded system needs a dry deck, so the forecast has a say in when we start.
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Get a price for your Sixpenny Handley flat roof
Tell us the address and what you have noticed. We will come out, check where the water is meant to go, and put an itemised price in writing. No charge, and no obligation.