Flat roofing in Tarrant Monkton

Lead is usually where it starts. On these Tarrant Monkton buildings the flashings were laid decades ago and fixed so tightly that they could not move, and lead that cannot move splits. After that comes the upstand that was dressed onto the face of the wall rather than cut into it, then the outlet, then the folds and the laps. A crack, a burst blister, an opened seam or a trim off its fixings is hours rather than days.

Re-covering a short span. Torch on felt, built up in three layers under a mineral cap sheet, takes an odd shape and several upstands better than anything else, which is why most of these roofs end up with it. A plain rectangle goes quicker in EPDM rubber, bonded down as one sheet. GRP fibreglass, laid wet and cured to a single skin with its trims, is for anything walked on. Single ply gets welded at the joints and suits roofs larger than the ones in Tarrant Monkton. A day for a small roof, two to three working days for a garage or an extension.

The deck under it. Boarding turns up as often as plywood, OSB or chipboard. Firm decking is covered over, soft decking taken out, and the joist ends nearest the wall get the closest look, because that is where a slow leak has been sitting. Water lying about after rain means the fall was never cut or the outlet is buried, and firrings or tapered insulation put that back. Where a room sits below, rebuilding as a warm roof with rigid PIR above the deck and a vapour control layer under it keeps the timber above the dew point and designs interstitial condensation out. BS 6229:2025 on flat roofs sets that out and Approved Document L asks for it.

The rest of the detail. A cover flashing cut into a chase and wedged. An apron in lead, in lengths short enough to move. A generous upstand behind both of them. A cavity tray only where a cavity exists, which in Tarrant Monkton is often not the case. Copings and parapets treated as part of the roof. A kerb built for a rooflight, a lantern, a Velux, a hatch, a soil pipe or a vent pipe. Then drip, edge trim, gutter, hopper and downpipe.

Thomas comes out himself and, where it is safe, steps onto the roof to feel the deck for soft patches. The figure he writes is his own, and the new roof is laid to it.

The quote splits the job into parts: the tower or scaffold, lifting the old felt or asphalt, any fresh decking, firrings where the fall has gone, insulation, the new membrane, each upstand and outlet, the edge trim, and clearing away. Out in Tarrant Monkton a flat roof might cover a rear extension, a porch or an outbuilding down a side path, so where the tower goes and where the strip-off is stacked is agreed first.

The deck is never left open at night, and if a shower comes through mid job it is sheeted before we leave. If the joists turn out rotten, Thomas sends you a picture and a figure for it, and nothing is touched until you agree.

A re-cover in the same form is maintenance and needs no planning permission, within Planning Portal guidance. On a listed building, listed building consent is checked before a specification is drawn up. A new deck over a room you live in brings in building control, through a building notice or an application with full plans.

Phone us, because the form is too slow for this. When a seam lifts at an upstand, or the felt splits or blisters, water drops straight onto the ceiling below, and the timber deck carries on soaking long after the shower has passed.

Put something under the drip, and if the ceiling sags, keep out of that room. Our first job is to get it dry, with a temporary patch or a sheet weighted and fixed against the wind. Once the deck can be seen, Thomas prices the lasting repair. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If we miss the call, we phone back as soon as we can.

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The whole village sits inside the conservation area, so even a small garage roof that shows from the lane is within its scope. A like for like re-cover is still maintenance and there is nothing to apply for.

The practical difficulty is proving that it was like for like once the old roof is in a skip, and that is easily solved: take photographs of the existing roof, its finish and its trims before anybody starts, and keep them with the written quote. We do that as a matter of course and you get copies.

Where it stops being simple is on a listed building, and there are a lot of them in Tarrant Monkton. Chasing a new flashing into an old wall, changing the material of a covering that can be seen, or altering the shape of the roof are alterations, and consent comes first rather than after. It is not usually difficult and it is rarely refused for sensible work, but it does put weeks on the front of the job. Tell us the address when you ring and we will say straight away which of those you are in, so you can start the right thing first.

Nearby places we also cover for flat roofing, with straight-line distances from Tarrant Monkton, and the other trades we offer in Tarrant Monkton itself.

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