Flat Roofing in Aldershot

A flat roof job in Aldershot starts with a proper look at the deck, not a price guessed from the pavement.

Wey Valley Roofing is family-run and fully insured, the founder Scott has spent more than 36 years on Surrey roofs and still answers the phone himself, and every job carries a 25-year written workmanship guarantee, whether that is a garage recover or a new roof replacement in Aldershot.

Call 07428 300474 any time and a real person answers.

Flat Roofing Systems

Most flat roofs in Aldershot are not flat at all. They sit at a shallow fall, an inch or two over a couple of metres, laid over timber joists and a chipboard or plywood deck. Get a spirit level on one and you often find the fall has gone the wrong way after years of deck movement, so water sits in a corner instead of reaching the outlet. That standing water is what kills the covering, not the rain itself.

The systems worth laying on a domestic deck come down to three. EPDM rubber, a single sheet bonded down, no joints on a small roof at all. GRP fibreglass, laid wet over a fresh deck and cured in place, which suits a roof with a lot of trims and upstands. Felt, torch-on or built-up in layers, still the sensible answer on larger areas and over an existing warm-roof build-up. Each behaves differently at the edges, which is where roofs leak.

Falls, outlets and upstand heights all sit inside BS 6229, and that is the document the work is set out against. It matters more than the brand name on the membrane.

Flat Roof Replacement

A tired felt roof gives itself away before it leaks. Blistering across the middle where trapped moisture expands in the sun, splits along the joist lines, chippings washed into low spots, and the felt at the parapet pulling away from its drip. Press a boot into it and if the deck feels soft underfoot, the water has already been in for a season or two.

Replacement starts with stripping back to the joists so the deck can be seen properly. Rotten boards come out, the joists get checked for decay at the wall plate, and new decking goes down in 18mm exterior grade ply, screwed rather than nailed. Firrings are cut to restore a fall towards the outlet. Then the new covering, the trims, and the flashing where the flat roof meets the house wall.

Doing it in that order costs the same as doing it badly. It just lasts.

Flat Roof Repairs and Flat Roofing Materials for Aldershot Homes

Plenty of Aldershot flat roofs are small and awkward rather than large: a rear kitchen extension, a bay canopy, a dormer cheek, a garage roof running up against a neighbour's wall. On those the leak is rarely in the field of the covering. It is at the abutment where the lead flashing has lost its wedges, at a corner where the felt was folded instead of cut and welded, or around a soil vent pipe collar that has perished. A repair on that kind of roof is a morning's work if it is diagnosed properly and a returning problem if it is not.

The materials suit different jobs, and the honest answer often points at repair rather than replacement:

• EPDM rubber: one piece on small and medium roofs, flexible in cold weather, good on a dormer.
• GRP fibreglass: hard wearing, takes foot traffic on a balcony or a roof terrace, needs a dry sound deck.
• Felt and torch-on: layered, repairable in patches, still the workhorse on garages and long extensions.
• Lead: for flashings, aprons and cover flashings, sized and lapped to Lead Sheet Association guidance.

All of it sits inside the same flat roofing work, whether that is a two metre patch or a full recover.

Flat Roof Waterproofing and Insulation

Cut open an older flat roof and you often find insulation squeezed between the joists with a vapour barrier that stops short of the walls. That is a cold roof, and it is where condensation forms on the underside of the deck through winter. Homeowners report it as a leak. It is not one. The ceiling stain sits in the same place every February and dries out in spring.

A warm-roof upgrade puts the insulation above the deck instead, with a vapour control layer beneath it and the waterproofing on top, so the dew point moves clear of the timber. Ventilation and condensation risk are set out in BS 5250, and rainwater outlet and gutter sizing in BS EN 12056, because insulation raises a roof height and the outlet has to be reworked to match. On a re-roof, Approved Document L's 25% rule can bring insulation into play, and that gets raised at survey rather than after the scaffold is up.

Flat Roof Installation in Aldershot

How the job runs, in order. Scott takes the call, day, night or weekend, and comes out to survey the roof himself, including a drone view where the roof cannot be walked safely. The measurements, the fall, the deck condition and the abutment detail get looked at properly. Then a fixed price in writing, with the system named, no obligation and no charge for the quote.

On site, the deck goes down first, then the perimeter trims and the drip edges, then the covering worked into the outlet and up the upstands to a proper height. Fixings and wind uplift follow BS 5534 where the work touches tiling or edge fixing. The scaffold or tower comes down, the chippings and offcuts go in the van, and the 25-year written workmanship guarantee is handed over before anyone leaves.

The roofers on site are our own. Nobody subcontracted turns up.

Commercial and Domestic Flat Roofing

A shop back roof, a workshop, a flat-roofed office extension and a domestic garage all fail in similar ways: ponding at a blocked outlet, a failed upstand, a rusted rainwater pipe pulling the gutter off level. The difference is access, working hours and how the building stays in use while the roof is off. On a commercial roof that usually means working in bays so the deck is never left open overnight.

Older garages in the area sometimes have asbestos-cement sheeting alongside a felt flat section. Those get assessed and the safe compliant route explained under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, so you know what has to happen and who has to do it. Licensed removal is not something we take on, and we say so plainly.

Scott has spent more than 36 years on Surrey roofs. Same standard, garage or warehouse.