Flat Roofing in Stone

The boards, first. Under the covering you find plywood, OSB, chipboard, or on older work plain boarding across the joists. Chipboard that has taken water swells once and never comes back, and it sags between the joists. Ply that flexes underfoot is going the same way. New OSB is what most of it goes back in, and with the deck open the joists get looked at properly.

Then where the water is meant to go. Plenty of these roofs in Stone were laid dead level, or the fall runs at a rainwater outlet that has since been kerbed over. Firrings go over the joists, or tapered insulation does the same job where the roof is built warm, so the surface drains at one point instead of holding a pool. Ponding keeps grit and moss on a cold wet surface and that is where the next split turns up. The hopper, gutter and downpipe get run through before we price the covering.

The edges and the wall behind them. On a flat roof in Stone almost nothing fails out in the middle. It fails at an upstand against the house wall, at a parapet, or along an edge trim whose fixings have worked loose. An abutment takes a lead cover flashing dressed into a chase. A parapet wants its coping bedded and a cavity tray behind it. Every open edge gets a trim with a drip on it. Each junction is priced on its own, because that is where the hours are.

What goes back on. EPDM rubber lays as a single sheet with bonded laps and no flame anywhere, which is the quiet answer over a room you are living in. GRP fibreglass is laid wet over new ply and cures as one skin, and it takes foot traffic. Built up felt in three layers under a torch on mineral cap sheet is the toughest walked surface of the lot. Single ply is welded and earns its place on a long garage or outbuilding rather than a porch.

Insulation, and anything standing up through it. Renew most of a covering and the insulation standard comes with it. A warm roof puts PIR above the deck with the vapour control layer under it, which holds the dew point out of the timber. A cold roof keeps insulation between the joists and has to be ventilated, or condensation and interstitial damp quietly rot the boards with nothing showing on top. BS 6229 covers the build up and Approved Document L the standard it has to reach. A rooflight, a lantern, a Velux, a hatch, a soil pipe or a vent pipe gets a kerb built up or a collar formed round it, never a bead of sealant.

The deck is the first thing to check. Boards that are dry and firm can take a new covering. Chipboard that has soaked up water, or ply that bounces when you walk on it, comes off. Where a roof in Stone has more than one section the deck can differ from one to the next, so we open up more than one spot before quoting.

Falls and outlets. Many garage and canopy roofs in Stone were laid with barely any fall, and water ponds at the back against the upstand. Correcting the fall with firrings, and making sure the outlet drains into a gutter that works, costs more than a new membrane laid over the top and lasts far longer.

Reaching it. A garage beside the drive can usually take a tower. A roof above a first floor, or a canopy over a front door you still need to use, needs a scaffold with a protected way through. Work at height rules are the reason it is quoted separately.

The system and the build-up. A warm roof puts insulation above the deck, which raises the edge, so the upstands, the edge trims and any door threshold have to be reworked. Felt, single ply and liquid systems each price and wear differently.

Who is paying. If you rent, your landlord may want more than one quote to compare, so ours is set out line by line.

Ask other firms what system and how many layers, whether the deck is renewed or covered over, and whether the falls are corrected.

We cover Stone, Pamphill, Wimborne Minster, Furzehill and Merley across BH21, working out from our base in Boscombe, Bournemouth, about nine miles away. Stone falls under Dorset Council for planning and building control. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is registered in England and Wales under company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Stone, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Thomas Hannen owns the business and is the person who climbs up and prices your roof. Checkatrade carries a 10 out of 10 from a verified customer. Nothing is charged for the visit or for the itemised quote he writes.

Most repairs in Stone 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.