Flat roofing in Yarmouth

The old flats behind a parapet. In the old streets there are small lead flats over a bay or set behind a parapet still doing their job, and we would rather say so than strip one. Lead that has split at a roll, or whose drips have flattened, can be dressed and patched. Where it has genuinely gone, the honest question is whether to relay in lead or turn it into a rubber or fibreglass roof, and on a listed building that gets settled before anything is ordered. The coping, the cavity tray behind it and the upstand behind the covering leak far more often than the flat itself does.

Post war additions, and the seventies sun lounge. This is most of the work. A cold roof with insulation dropped between the joists, a dead void above it, and a built up felt covering that has done its time. The covering goes back as three layer torch on felt under a mineral cap sheet, as EPDM rubber laid in one sheet with bonded laps, or as single ply hot air welded where the span is long. The build up goes as well wherever there is a heated room underneath, because a ventilated cold roof beneath a sun lounge gathers condensation and interstitial damp. A warm roof with PIR above the deck and the vapour control layer beneath it keeps the dew point clear of the timber. BS 6229 sets it out and Approved Document L sets the level.

The recent work, and what sits under all of it. Newer roofs are usually GRP fibreglass, formed in place over new ply and cured into one skin, and they crack at a sharp internal corner where the deck has been flexing rather than out in the open field. That is a deck fault, not a covering fault. Under any of the three you find plywood, OSB, chipboard or plain boarding, and chipboard swells the first time it gets wet and stays swollen. Firrings over the joists, or tapered insulation inside a warm roof, put a fall back so the surface drains at the rainwater outlet instead of ponding.

The edges, whatever the age. The upstand against the house wall, the abutment with its lead cover flashing dressed into a chase, the drip and apron at the front edge, the edge trim whose fixings have pulled in a blow off the water. A skylight, a lantern, a Velux, a hatch, a soil pipe or a vent pipe each want a kerb or a collar. Then the gutter, hopper and downpipe are cleared and run through before the covering takes the blame. A garage is a day. A sun lounge with a new deck and firrings is two or three working days.

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 sun lounge across the back of a bungalow, a detached garage on a side drive and a small parapet roof in the old town are three different jobs before anything comes off. 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.

We cover Yarmouth, Norton, Thorley, Shalfleet and the PO41 side of the west Wight, and the site visit is free. 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.