Flat roofing in Winfrith Newburgh
Flat roof repairs, re-covering and warm roof build ups in Winfrith Newburgh and the DT2 villages. Free site visit, free written itemised quote.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On a flat roof the question that matters is not what the covering is made of. It is where the water goes once it lands, and in a low lying village like Winfrith Newburgh that question carries all the way to the ground.
The calls fall into a pattern. Water is not clearing off the roof any more. A ceiling has marked and the mark keeps coming back. Or a downpipe has started overflowing at the joint every time it rains hard. The roofs themselves are the usual village mix: a garage, a rear extension, a lean-to over a kitchen, a porch, a bay top, or the flat piece between two pitched roofs where something was added later. All three complaints are worth taking seriously in a village that sits as low as this one. We get onto the roof safely, follow the water from the surface right down to where it discharges, and photograph everything before a figure is put on anything.
The roofs we see
What comes off, and what goes back on
Follow the water. That is how we survey a roof here, and it finds the fault more often than staring at the covering does. Across the deck, into the outlet, through the hopper, down the pipe. A silted outlet stops the first stage and everything backs up behind it. After that come the ordinary faults: a fold that has cracked, a blister risen and burst, a lap that has opened, a trim off its fixings, an upstand gone perished. Hours rather than days, all of them.
Re-covering. A surface that no longer bends comes off. EPDM rubber goes back as one bonded sheet with nothing crossing the field, which suits a plain garage. GRP fibreglass is laid wet and cures to a single skin with its own trims, so it takes traffic. Torch on felt in three built up layers under a mineral cap sheet handles a roof full of upstands. Single ply is welded at the joints and belongs on a large span. Two to three working days for a garage or a small extension.
Deck and build up. Plywood, OSB, chipboard or older boarding underneath, and the chipboard is what usually softens. Firm decking gets covered over, soft decking comes out and the joists are inspected while they are bare. Water standing about after rain means no fall was cut or the outlet is buried, and firrings or tapered insulation correct that before anything new is laid. On a rebuild the insulation goes above the deck as rigid PIR with a vapour control layer beneath it, holding the timber above the dew point and leaving interstitial condensation nowhere to happen. That is what BS 6229:2025 on flat roofs sets out and what Approved Document L asks for where a room sits below.
Edges, openings and abutments. An upstand with a cover flashing chased into the wall, an apron in lead where lead is already there, a cavity tray where there is a cavity, and parapets and copings taken as part of the roof. A kerb built to carry a rooflight, a lantern, a Velux, a hatch, a soil pipe or a vent pipe. Then the drip and the edge trim, and below them the gutter, the hopper and the downpipe, which on a small roof matter more than anything in the middle of it.
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.
Winfrith Newburgh is in Dorset Council's area. A re-cover in the same form is maintenance: no planning permission, and permitted development covers it, with Planning Portal guidance marking the limit. The village has a conservation area over it and a good many listed entries, so where a roof shows or a building is listed we check listed building consent first. Building control comes in under building notice or an application with full plans 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 garage on an open plot, a lean-to you can only reach through the house, and a roof between two pitched slopes are three quite different jobs. 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. Winfrith Newburgh is a run out west for us, but a leak into a room is not something we leave until next week. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Where the roof water ends up matters here
Parts of the village sit in flood zone 2 and 3, with the Win running close by, and that changes one thing about a flat roof: the outlet is not the end of the story. On a low lying plot with a high water table, a downpipe running into a soakaway often has nowhere to soak away to during the weeks when it matters most. The water backs up the pipe, the outlet on the roof stops taking anything, and you get standing water on a roof that was laid perfectly well. the government flood risk service will tell you what applies at your address.
So when we look at a roof here we follow the water all the way down: the fall across the deck, the outlet, the hopper, the downpipe and where it finally discharges. If the ground cannot take it, the answer is a positive outfall to a drain rather than a bigger soakaway, and Approved Document H covers how rainwater drainage should be dealt with. It is also why we would size an overflow into the detail on a roof that has only one outlet. One blocked gully should not mean a ceiling.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Winfrith Newburgh, Wool, West Lulworth, Owermoigne and the DT2 villages behind the coast. 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
Winfrith Newburgh questions we get asked
The water sits on my roof for days. Is the covering at fault?
Usually not. Standing water nearly always means the fall is wrong or the outlet cannot discharge. Both are fixable, and both need finding before a new covering goes on, or you will be looking at the same puddle on a new roof.
Should there be more than one outlet?
On anything but a small roof, yes, or at least an overflow. A single outlet is a single point of failure, and a blocked one on a roof with a parapet round it turns the roof into a tank. We will say at the survey whether yours has enough places for water to leave.
Can you fit a new gutter and downpipe at the same time?
Yes, and it is often the sensible moment. There is no point in a new covering discharging into a broken gutter or a downpipe that goes nowhere. It goes on the quote as its own line so you can see what it costs and decide.
How long does the job take?
A repair is often the same day. A garage or a small extension is two to three working days. Renewing the deck, correcting falls with firrings or forming a kerb for a rooflight adds to that. A bonded system needs a dry deck, so we plan around the forecast rather than against it.
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Get a price for your Winfrith Newburgh flat roof
Tell us the address and what you have noticed. We will come out, follow the water from the roof to the ground, and put an itemised price in writing. No charge, and no obligation.