Flat roofing in Westbourne

Repairs that are worth doing. A split along a lap, a blister that has burst, or an upstand where the felt has lifted away from the wall can be cut out and patched with the same material, as long as the deck underneath is dry. Most leaks start at an edge instead of the middle: at the upstand, the drip edge, the outlet, or the lead cover flashing chased into the brickwork above it.

Re-covering. When the covering is failing in several places, or the deck gives underfoot, it comes off. Wet chipboard or tired plywood is replaced with new OSB or ply, and firrings or a tapered board put back a proper fall so water heads for the outlet instead of ponding. Then the covering: a single ply EPDM rubber membrane bonded down with no seams in the middle, GRP fibreglass laid wet on a new deck, or a built up torch on felt system in three layers with a cap sheet. Each has its place, and we will say which suits your roof and why. A small extension roof is often two or three working days.

Warm roof or cold roof. Most of the older extension roofs in Westbourne are cold roofs, with a little insulation between the joists and not enough ventilation, which is where condensation and interstitial damp come from. Re-covering is the time to turn it into a warm roof, with PIR board above the deck under a vapour control layer, so the dew point sits outside the timber. Building control and Part L come in once you replace the whole covering, and we deal with that.

Terraces and walkable roofs. A Westbourne roof that doubles as a terrace needs a covering rated for foot traffic, and paving on supports rather than slabs laid straight onto the membrane. Where the terrace meets the building, the upstand has to finish under a door threshold, which is the detail that most often fails.

Block roofs. Large flat roofs on purpose-built Westbourne blocks have parapets with copings, several outlets, soil and vent pipes, a roof hatch and sometimes a lift housing, and each one is an upstand to detail. We survey them in a way a managing agent can use: what has failed, what is only tired, and what can wait a year.

When a repair is the wrong answer. If the deck is sodden, patching the surface just traps the water in it. We will tell you so, and not sell you a patch that will fail in a winter.

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. In Westbourne, a kitchen extension behind a converted villa, a store room roof behind a shop on Poole Road, and the main roof of a four storey block are three very different jobs to reach. 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.

We cover Westbourne and BH4, from the County Gates end of Poole Road to the streets around Alum Chine, along with Branksome and Canford Cliffs next door. BCP Council is the planning and building control authority, and we are based in Boscombe, a short drive east.

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. Before you book a visit in Westbourne, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Westbourne 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.