Flat Roofing in Tolpuddle

The chase is the first problem. Textbook detailing says cut a chase into the brickwork and dress a cover flashing into it. In a soft handmade brick, or in rubble, cutting a chase can do more damage than the leak ever did.

So we work with what is there instead: lead dressed over an apron and secured into a raked out bed joint, pointed back in a mortar that suits the wall rather than a hard cement that will take the face off it in the first frost.

Movement is the second. Old walls shift with the seasons and a rigid covering does not enjoy being told to shift with them. It is one reason EPDM does well in Tolpuddle: a single sheet of rubber, bonded cold, no joints out in the field of the roof and enough give at the upstand to live with a wall that moves. GRP, brushed on wet over fresh plywood and cured as one fibreglass skin, is superb over a stable deck and unforgiving over one that flexes. We choose by the building rather than by what is easiest to fit.

Fire is the third, and it decides more than people realise. Torching a built up felt roof means an open flame against old timber, dry ivy in a wall, or thatch on the roof next door. Where that is the situation we will not torch it. Three layer built up felt is a fine covering and we still fit it, but it goes down cold bonded or self adhesive under the mineral cap sheet. Single ply, hot air welded at the laps, is another way round the same problem on a wider span.

Then the ordinary work, which is the same here as anywhere. The boarding comes up if it is soft, chipboard being the usual culprit, and OSB goes back over joists we have checked. The fall is re-cut with firrings or tapered insulation so water reaches an outlet instead of sitting in a hollow. Parapets, of which Tolpuddle has plenty, get their coping re-bedded with a cavity tray behind. Every open edge takes a trim with a drip on it. Rooflights and lanterns go back onto kerbs we build up so the skylight stands clear of standing water, and Velux units, hatches, soil pipes and vent pipes each take a collar. The outlet, hopper, gutter and downpipe are cleared before we price a covering. Blisters, bubbles, splits and seams that have lifted are all repairable: back to sound material, a new piece bonded or welded in, edge dressed down.

Insulation is the one place where an old building wants some thought. A warm roof, with PIR over the deck and the vapour control layer beneath it, keeps the dew point out of the timber and is what building control will expect on a renewed covering. On a building with solid walls and no damp course, though, it is worth asking where the moisture in the fabric is going once you seal the top of it. BS 5250 covers moisture in buildings and Approved Document L the thermal standard. We would sooner have that conversation before the boards go down than after the plaster starts to bloom.

Nobody can give you a fair figure for a flat roof from the ground. The size is the easy part.

The deck. A sound deck can take a new covering straight on. Chipboard that has been damp for years, or ply that gives underfoot, has to be stripped and replaced, and that is the biggest swing in any flat roof price. It is why the corner gets lifted before the quote is written.

Where the water goes. A roof laid dead level ponds, and the membrane fails where the water sits. Firrings put a fall back in, and each outlet and edge trim is priced on its own.

Where it meets an old wall. On a Tolpuddle property the upstand often runs into brick, stone or flint that was never built for a flashing. Chasing one in neatly is slow, careful work, and it is where most flat roof leaks start.

Getting to it. A garage or a single storey kitchen roof usually comes off a tower. Anything up against a two storey wall wants a scaffold, and it has to stay up while the deck is open. The work at height rules make that a line of its own.

When you compare quotes, ask which system and how many layers, whether the deck is renewed or covered over, whether firrings correct the falls, and whether the scaffold and the skip are included.

We work from our base in Boscombe, about twenty miles from Tolpuddle, and cover Puddletown, Affpuddle, Briantspuddle and Milborne St Andrew across DT2 as well as Bournemouth itself. For planning and building control this is Dorset Council.

The company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales under company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen owns it, and he is the person who climbs up, lifts that corner and prices your roof. One verified customer on Checkatrade marked us 10 out of 10. Coming out to look is free, and so is the itemised quote in writing. Before you book a visit in Tolpuddle, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Tolpuddle 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.