Extensions, dormers, garages and porches, recovered in fibreglass or high performance felt with the falls put right rather than repeated. Most flat roofs that fail have failed at a joint, an upstand or a low spot that holds water. Getting those three things right is what separates a flat roof that lasts twenty years from one that lasts five.
A flat roof is only as good as what it is laid on. Soft or delaminated boards get replaced, fixings checked, and firrings adjusted where the fall is wrong. Laying a new finish over a tired deck is the single most common reason a flat roof comes back.
GRP is applied wet and cures into a single seamless skin with no joints to open up, taken up the upstands and dressed into purpose made trims. Ideal for extensions and dormers, and it takes foot traffic for maintenance without complaint.
High performance three layer felt systems still have their place, particularly on larger garage roofs and where budget matters. Properly bonded, with mineral cap sheet and correctly formed upstands, it is a serious system rather than the shed felt people picture.
Drip trims, raised edge trims, new outlets and the connection back into the gutter all get sorted at the same time. A flat roof that sheds water into the right place stays dry, and the detail at the wall abutment gets the same attention as the middle.
A correctly laid GRP roof on a sound deck is generally good for twenty years plus, and it does not have felt joints to fail. The two things that shorten that are laying it over a deck that should have been replaced and skimping on the upstand detail, which is why both are in the written estimate rather than optional extras.
Sometimes, and we will tell you honestly after we have lifted a corner and had a look. If the deck is dry and firm an overlay can be the sensible economical choice. If the boards are soft or the insulation is saturated, an overlay just buries the problem and we would rather not do it.
Ponding means the fall is wrong or has sagged, and standing water finds every weakness eventually. Correcting it usually means adjusting or replacing firrings while the deck is exposed. That work is worth doing once, because otherwise every future repair is fighting the same low spot.
A typical single garage or small extension roof is one to two days. Larger roofs, or anything needing the deck replaced, run to three or four. Fibreglass needs a dry window to cure, so we watch the forecast and would rather move a day than lay it into rain.
Yes. Small flat areas on dormers, bay tops and porches are some of the most common leak sources on a house, and they are usually a one day job. They are also where a proper upstand and a decent lead or trim detail matters most, because there is so little roof to work with.
Based at New Street in Salisbury and working up to 100 miles out across Wiltshire, Hampshire, Dorset, Somerset and Berkshire, so a look at your job is rarely more than a couple of days away.
Send a photo or two through WhatsApp, or ring us, and we will come out and give you a free written estimate.