Flat roofing in Sopley

Back additions on cottages and houses. Small roofs, often tight to a boundary, sometimes with a parapet or a garden wall on one or both sides. EPDM rubber is a good fit because it goes down as one sheet with bonded seams, so there is little to fail in a small area. GRP fibreglass suits one with steps, kerbs or a change in level. The awkward part is not the covering, it is getting materials through and keeping the neighbour's side dry.

Garages and outbuildings. Older ones are usually felt, three layers built up beneath a mineral cap sheet, over plywood, OSB or chipboard, and now brittle. Where the deck is dry it is a strip and re-lay, in a modern torch on system on a plain span or in single ply welded at the laps where the span is larger. Chipboard that has been wet has to come off, and no photograph will tell you which sort you have.

Falls, outlets and the everyday faults. Firrings give a flat roof its falls, and without them water stands. Ponding and standing water then work on every lap and seam under them. Blisters and bubbles, a split or crack where a covering has hardened, a lifted or failed seam at a corner, and a rainwater outlet packed with moss are the usual faults. The outlet, the hopper, the gutter and the downpipe are checked as one thing, because a roof that cannot drain is not a roof.

Cold roof, warm roof and the vapour side of it. A cold roof puts the insulation between the joists and needs a ventilated void above it. A warm roof puts PIR over the deck above a vapour control layer, so the timber sits the warm side of the dew point and interstitial condensation stops forming inside the build up. Where headroom is tight, tapered insulation gives you falls and thickness together. BS 6229 is the code both come from, and it is why we ask what is under the covering before pricing.

Junctions and openings. Where a flat roof meets brickwork the abutment gets a chase and a lead cover flashing, not a bead of mastic, and where there is a parapet the coping and any cavity tray get looked at. At the perimeter it is the edge trim, the drip and the apron. A rooflight, a lantern or a Velux sits on a kerb that has to be formed, insulated and dressed, and the same goes for a soil pipe or a vent pipe through the deck.

The deck comes first. Chipboard decks on older roofs swell once water gets in, and a deck that gives underfoot has to come off. Sound ply or boards can stay and be built on. That is the biggest swing in any flat roof price, which is why we check before quoting rather than guessing.

Falls and outlets. Many original garage and extension roofs were laid almost dead level, so water ponds and sits against the upstand. Putting a fall back with firrings, and moving an outlet so it drains into a gutter that works, adds labour but ends the ponding.

The warm roof build-up. Once the old covering is off, insulation goes on top of the deck under the membrane. That lifts the roof, so the upstands, the edge trim and any door threshold or sill onto the roof have to be reworked, and each has its own line.

Reaching it. A detached garage can usually be reached from the lane or the drive, a rear extension behind the house often cannot. A single storey roof comes off a tower; a flat roof over a first floor wants a scaffold, and work at height rules make that a line of its own.

Cracks at the wall. A cracked upstand against a house wall can be the wall or the extension moving rather than the roof failing. We look at both.

Ask any other firm whether the deck is being replaced or covered over, which system and how many layers, and whether the falls are being corrected.

We work across Sopley, Winkton, Bransgore and the BH23 addresses in the Avon valley. From Boscombe, where our base is, it is 3.7 miles out to the village. Planning and building control here sit with New Forest District Council.

On paper we are Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales under company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen owns the business, and he is the person who climbs up to price your roof. Checkatrade carries a 10 out of 10 from a verified customer. Nothing is charged for the site visit or for the written quote with each line set out. Before you book a visit in Sopley, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Sopley 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.