Garage Roof Leaking: Repair, Overlay or Replace?
What the roof is made of, where the water gets in, what each fix needs from the deck, and the sheets nobody should touch first.
· 7 min read
Guides
Roofing Knowledge
Plain-English answers to the questions building owners and managers actually ask about flat roofs. No jargon for its own sake, no scare tactics, and no number we cannot stand behind.
Leaks and diagnosis
Something is wet and you want to know what is causing it, starting with whether the roof is even at fault.
Why Flat Roofs on New Extensions Leak Early
Falls, the junction with the house, outlets, openings and trapped moisture: why a young roof fails, and why the cause comes before any fix.
· 7 min read
Getting a Flat Roof Through the Winter
The autumn jobs are cheap because they are planned. What to do when, and what the cold genuinely rules out.
· 5 min read
Your Flat Roof Is Leaking: What to Do in the Next Hour
Inside first, roof second. What genuinely helps in the first hour, and the three reflexes that make a leak more expensive.
· 6 min read
When a Balcony Leaks Into the Flat Below
The flat below finds out first. Where the water actually enters, and why the ownership question comes before anybody lifts a slab.
· 5 min read
Condensation or a Leak? Telling Them Apart Under a Flat Roof
Same stain, opposite causes. The weather and the pattern tell you which, and the wrong fix pays for work that cannot help.
· 7 min read
Standing Water on a Flat Roof: When It Matters
Some standing water is the design working. Some is the roof telling you where it has given up. The difference is worth knowing.
· 4 min read
7 Signs Your Flat Roof Is Failing
What ponding, blisters and stained ceilings are trying to tell you, and which signs cannot wait.
· 4 min read
Systems and materials
What the things on a flat roof actually are, how they differ and how each one behaves as it ages.
A Liquid Overlay, Step by Step: What Happens on the Roof
The days on site in the order they happen, from the inspection that clears the base to the paperwork left behind.
· 7 min read
Where EPDM Fits Against Felt and Liquid
Three families compared on joints, ageing and awkward details. We fit two of them, and say so before the comparison starts.
· 6 min read
Types of Roofing Felt: What the Layers Actually Are
Underlay or cap sheet, polyester or glass, SBS or APP. What actually differs between the sheets, and why a brand name settles nothing.
· 7 min read
What Is Mastic Asphalt, and Why Does London Have So Much of It?
A material poured hot and worked by hand, still on a surprising share of flat roofs across the city, deep into a very long first life.
· 4 min read
Torch-On Felt Roofing Explained: Process, Layers & Safety
The process behind the flame: layers, bonding, detailing and the safety discipline that governs it all.
· 6 min read
RBM vs Single Ply: Which Flat Roof System?
Built-up bitumen against the factory sheet: where each wins, and how the choice really gets made.
· 5 min read
Warm Roof vs Cold Roof: What Is the Difference?
Where the insulation lives, why condensation is the cold roof villain, and how conversion really happens.
· 5 min read
What Is Reinforced Bituminous Membrane (RBM)?
A glossary-grade explanation of the system behind most modern British flat roofs.
· 5 min read
Liquid vs Felt Flat Roofing: Which Is Right?
Not a contest but a fit question, and why one roof often needs both systems.
· 5 min read
How Long Does a Felt Roof Last?
Why one number misleads, what manufacturers actually publish, and what decides your roof in particular.
· 4 min read
Costs and decisions
Repair or replace, what a quotation should contain and what to ask before anybody starts. No prices, because honest ones do not exist in the abstract.
Party Walls and Flat Roof Work: When the Neighbours Need Notice
Where a flat roof meets the wall you share, which kinds of work can need notice, whose job the notice is, and why it shapes the start date.
· 5 min read
Can You Put Solar Panels on a Flat Roof?
Yes, where the roof is sound enough to last as long as the array: why the covering is checked first, how panels are held down, and how the roof stays maintainable.
· 5 min read
Buying or Selling a House With a Flat Roof: What the Survey Says and What It Means
The standard phrases, what a specialist survey adds, and how a flag becomes a scope and a price both sides can work with.
· 6 min read
What Decides the Cost of a New Flat Roof
Three prices added together, only one of which is the roof. What moves each, and why a telephone figure is advertising.
· 6 min read
Roof Terraces and Permission: What to Check Before You Plan One
What a terrace raises that a re-covering never does, and who genuinely decides. We build them and obtain nothing.
· 5 min read
When a Flat Roof Job Needs Scaffolding, and When It Does Not
Height decides less than access and duration. When a ladder genuinely suffices, and why an omitted scaffold line is not a saving.
· 5 min read
Questions Worth Asking Before You Choose a Flat Roofer
Eight questions, and what good and poor answers sound like. Useful whoever you end up hiring.
· 6 min read
Will Insurance Cover a Flat Roof Leak?
The line insurers draw is between an event and a decline. What sits either side of it, and what to have ready before you ring.
· 5 min read
When Building Regulations Apply to a Flat Roof
Repairs mostly sit outside. Renewal and new build mostly do not. Where the line falls, and who puts their name to it.
· 4 min read
What Does Flat Roof Refurbishment Cost in the UK?
No invented figures: the cost logic laid bare, and how to compare quotations without being misled.
· 6 min read
Flat Roof Repair vs Replacement: How to Decide
The dry-deck test, the two classic false economies, and how the decision gets made properly.
· 5 min read
What to Expect From a Flat Roof Survey
The scope, the report, the red flags of a glance-and-a-price, and why the paperwork is the product.
· 5 min read
For property managers and blocks
Leasehold buildings, consultation, and paperwork built to survive being forwarded upward to people who have never stood on the roof.
Flat Roof Leak Investigation: How the Source Is Found
Why the stain is rarely under the fault, where flat roofs usually let water in, and the order an investigation follows to find the entry point.
· 5 min read
What Should a Flat Roof Refurbishment Specification Include?
The evidence behind it, the route, the details, access and handover: what a refurbishment specification needs so every contractor prices the same roof.
· 7 min read
Who Pays for a Flat Roof at the End of a Lease?
What a schedule asks of a flat roof, how repair differs from reinstatement, and why a condition record dated at both ends of the lease settles arguments.
· 4 min read
The Handover Pack: What You Should Receive When Roof Works Finish
Photographs, build-up, guarantees, maintenance terms and the health and safety file: what to ask for before signing off.
· 6 min read
Who Is Responsible for the Roof in a Leasehold Flat?
The argument that delays the repair. What leases usually say, who instructs the work, and what evidence shortens the dispute.
· 5 min read
Section 20 Consultation and Roof Works: What It Means in Practice
Notice and reasoning, not permission. The stages, the objections agents actually meet, and why splitting a programme backfires.
· 6 min read
What Does Commercial Roof Maintenance Cost?
One published benchmark, the levers that move a real portfolio price, and the planned-versus-reactive maths.
· 6 min read
Does Your Roof Guarantee Require Annual Inspections?
The condition hiding in most flat roof guarantees, and the paperwork that keeps cover alive.
· 7 min read
Reading about it is the cheap part
Wanting these same questions answered about your own roof, not roofs at large, takes somebody looking at it.
Book a survey
Or call us on 07593 196505
Coming out and pricing the work is free, and every quotation for an existing roof comes with photographs of it. A written condition survey carries a fee, agreed before the visit and taken off the price of the work if you go ahead.