Flat roofing in Walhampton and Portmore
Flat roofs, balconies and walkway roofs repaired and re-covered across Walhampton, Portmore and the SO41 villages. Free site visit, free written quote.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
A balcony is a flat roof with people walking on it, and around Walhampton and Portmore that is a good share of the work. It needs a fall, an outlet and a walk on finish, and the door threshold is where it usually goes wrong.
The calls come from two directions here. Either a resident has water coming through a ceiling and wants to know who to tell, or a managing agent has a balcony or a walkway that has been patched twice already and wants it priced properly. Around a third of the homes here are flats, so alongside the ordinary garage and rear extension roofs we spend a lot of time on balconies, walkway roofs, bin store roofs and the porch canopies over communal doors. Both kinds of call need the same thing first, which is somebody on the roof rather than looking up at it. We check where the water is meant to leave, whether the threshold at any door has height under it, and what state the outlets and upstands are in.
What we do here
Balconies, bin stores and rear extensions
Balconies and roofs that get walked on. These leak into somebody's ceiling rather than into a garage, so they get the most care. The deck has to fall to an outlet instead of sitting dead level. The covering has to take feet, furniture and a barbecue. And the threshold at the door needs enough height under it that water backing up cannot run indoors. GRP fibreglass cures into one skin with its trims and takes traffic. Single ply, welded at the joints with a walkway laid over it, suits a longer terrace or a shared walkway. Behind any wall or railing the upstand has to be formed, not sealed.
Repairs and re-covering elsewhere. A cracked fold, a burst blister, an opened lap, a trim off its fixings or an outlet packed with debris are hours rather than days. Where a covering has gone hard it comes off. A bin store or a plain garage takes EPDM rubber, bonded down in one sheet with nothing crossing the middle. A roof full of upstands takes torch on felt, three layers under a mineral cap sheet. Two to three working days is normal for a garage or a small extension.
Deck and insulation. Plywood, OSB or chipboard, and the chipboard is the one that softens. Firm decking is covered over, soft decking comes out and the joists get inspected while they are bare. Ponding means the fall is wrong or the outlet has been built over, and firrings or tapered insulation correct it. Over a heated room the rebuild belongs as a warm roof: rigid PIR above the deck, a vapour control layer under it, the timber held above the dew point and interstitial condensation designed out. BS 6229:2025 on flat roofs sets it out and Approved Document L applies wherever there is a room below.
Abutments, openings and rainwater. An upstand with a cover flashing chased into the wall. A lead apron where lead is already there. A cavity tray where the wall has a cavity. Parapets and copings, which on a block are very often exactly where it is failing. A kerb built for a rooflight, a lantern, a Velux, a hatch, a soil pipe or a vent pipe. Then the drip, the edge trim and the gutter, hopper and downpipe, because a shared downpipe that cannot cope puts water down a wall several flats can see.
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.
These addresses sit inside the New Forest National Park, so planning rests with the Authority. A like for like re-cover is maintenance and needs no planning permission, and Planning Portal guidance marks the limit. Permitted development is narrower inside a National Park and inside a conservation area, so anything that alters how a building looks is worth checking on the National Park Authority's interactive property map first. Building control applies separately where a new deck goes over a habitable room.
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 first floor balcony reached only through a flat, a bin store roof at ground level, and a garage on its own plot are three different jobs entirely. 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. We are along the coast road from here, so a balcony putting water into the flat below is seen quickly and made watertight the same visit. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
On a flat, find out who can order the work before you book anyone
If you live in a flat or a maisonette, the roof over your head and the balcony outside your door usually belong to the freeholder and are paid for out of the service charge, not by you directly. So when a ceiling stains, the fastest route is not ringing a roofer. It is finding out who manages the block and telling them, in writing, what has happened. We will still come and look, and we will put what the roof actually needs in writing so you have something to send them.
There is one thing worth knowing early if you sit on a residents' company or a management committee. Where work would cost any single leaseholder more than a set amount, the leaseholders have to be formally consulted before it is committed, under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985. That moves the timetable rather than the roof, and it is a great deal easier arranged in spring than in the middle of a wet November. Getting a written itemised quote in front of people early is usually what unsticks it.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Walhampton, Portmore, Boldre, Lymington and the SO41 villages on the east side of the river. 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
Walhampton and Portmore questions we get asked
Water is coming through from the balcony above mine. Whose job is it?
Almost always the freeholder's, because the structure outside your front door is theirs and it comes out of the service charge. Report it in writing to whoever manages the block. We are happy to look and put the fault and the fix in writing so you have something to hand over.
Can a balcony be re-covered without stripping the whole thing?
Sometimes, if the deck is sound and the falls work. What decides it is the threshold at the door and how much height there is to play with, because a new build up on top raises the surface. We measure that at the survey before we suggest anything.
Will you work on a communal roof for a management company?
Yes. The quote is itemised so it can be put in front of leaseholders and compared properly, access and disposal included. We work with one point of contact, and nothing is left open or unusable overnight, which matters more on a shared building than anywhere.
How long does a balcony or walkway take?
A small balcony is often one to two days, a walkway longer depending on length and access. The work has to be dry to cure or weld properly, so we plan around the forecast and cover anything opened up at the end of each day.
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Get a price for your Walhampton or Portmore flat roof
Tell us the address and what you have noticed. We will come out, look at the falls and the thresholds, and put an itemised price in writing. No charge, and no obligation.