Secrets To Getting BEST ROOFING COMPANIES To Complete Tasks Quickly And Efficiently

The best flat roof roofing material is undoubtedly a single sheet of rubber tailor made for weather-proofing flat roofs, such as for example Firestone’s EPDM product.

That is laid directly onto roof boarding, itself supported by the roof rafters and nagging. Insulating material is normally laid in the space between your two, and if you are renewing your flat roof anyway you may as well take the chance of renewing that concurrently.

This will almost certainly be the recommendation you receive from any reputable builder or roofer advising you on replacing your existing flat roof.

Until recently the most popular material for a new flat roof was bituminous felt laid in three layers, the first layer nailed down and top of the two bonded to the main one beneath with mastic bitumen. Depending on material used, this could mean heating a solid bitumen-based compound to create it liquid, and pouring it onto the underlying felt and spreading it evenly on the whole area of the roof.

Then you had to wait for the compound to cool before applying another layer, and at the end spreading a layer of stone chippings on the roof and bonding it with a chipping compound, this being to reflect the sun’s rays preventing the felt and bitumen degrading quickly.

This was altogether a rather messy, complicated and time-consuming job best left to the professionals. In addition, there have been several stages where it had been very easy to neglect to make the roof weather-proof, e.g. where the edge of the felt met the existing tile or slate roofing of the pitch roof.

On top of that, if, or rather when, there developed a leak in the flat roof, it could be very difficult and messy to find out exactly where the rain was getting in. Seldom would the manifestation of the leak on the ceiling of the room below be directly below the foundation of it. Water could get through a weakness in the bitumen felt and travel along a rafter before descending to the ceiling board below.

The brand new generation of rubber-based flat roofing systems are far superior. Assuming you have reasonable DIY abilities then you can certainly probably do it yourself, with one other person to aid. You can easily look for a local supplier of rubber flat roof roofing material online, and the existing price is only around �6.65 per square metre.

Most suppliers cut the material to the exact size and shape that you require so there are no unnecessary joins, meaning no weaknesses and an extremely long-lasting, leak-proof roof.

The vital portion of the whole process is to make sure that there are no gaps between your rubber roof and any existing pitch roof where rain may penetrate. To ensure you can find no problems it’s important to run the rubber material up and under the tiles or slates of the adjoining pitch roof in order that any rain dripping from the lower-most row falls onto the rubber, without possibility of it over-lapping the edge and getting underneath the pitch roof.

Also, make sure that the existing slope of the flat roof towards the guttering or other method of water escape is maintained. The rubber is simply glued onto the roof boards and sealed where appropriate with metal brackets or bitumen so that rain penetration is impossible. Mind that roof ROI covers the entire underneath of the rubber to be able to avoid bumps in the surface that could obstruct the drainage of the water away.

Rubber roofs have been shown to last for well over 50 years under all weathers, so it really is the only flat roof roofing material that you should consider when deciding on a fresh flat roof.