Garage Roofing in Knaphill

Garage roofs are where the cheap fix gets found out, usually two winters later, at the laps and the trims.

Wey Valley Roofing is family-run and fully insured, the founder Scott has spent more than 36 years on Surrey roofs, and the same experienced roofer in Knaphill who surveys your garage is the one who does the work.

Call 07428 300474 at any hour and a real person answers, day, night or weekend.

Most garage roofs in Knaphill fail at the edges and the laps rather than in the middle of the field, so the first job is establishing whether the deck below is still sound or whether the covering has been holding water for years.

Garage Roof Repairs

A repair is worth doing when the deck is dry and the failure is local. That means a split at a lap, a blistered patch of torch-on felt, a lifted or loose trim on the drip edge, or a failed detail where the garage abuts the house wall. Those are all repairable without stripping the roof.

The survey works through the roof in a fixed order: verge and drip trims first, then the perimeter upstands, then the field of the covering, then the outlet and the gutter line, then the underside of the deck from inside the garage. Soft chipboard, delaminated plywood or dark staining along the joists means the water has already been in for a while and a patch will only move the leak along.

Rainwater sizing gets checked at the same time, because a garage that discharges the main house roof into an undersized outlet will keep flooding its own laps. Gutter and outlet capacity is sized to BS EN 12056 rather than replaced like for like. We tell you plainly when a smaller repair will do, and we put that in writing the same way we would a full re-roof.

Garage Roof Materials and Systems

Flat garage roofs in this area are usually one of four things, and each behaves differently once it is on:

• EPDM rubber: a single membrane, typically 1.2mm or 1.5mm, dressed in one piece on most single garages so the field carries no joints at all. Adhered to a prepared deck, with metal trims to the verges.
• GRP fibreglass: laid wet over 18mm WBP plywood, with proprietary edge trims bonded in and a topcoat. Rigid, so it wants a stable, screwed-down deck and correctly cut expansion detailing.
• Felt, torch-on or built-up: two or three layers, with a mineral cap sheet and reinforced upstands. Still a sound system where it is specified and lapped properly.
• Box profile steel and metal tile sheet: for pitched or mono-pitch garages, fixed through the crown with sealing washers, with an anti-condensation lining on the underside where the garage is unheated.

The reason the list matters is that the choice is driven by the deck, the pitch and the abutment, not by preference. BS 6229 governs the flat roof build-up, including falls to the outlet, and BS 5250 governs ventilation and condensation risk, which is what actually causes the drips people assume are leaks in an unheated garage. Warm-roof upgrades, with the insulation above the deck and the vapour control layer below it, are the usual fix for a garage that is being converted or used as a workshop.

Asbestos Garage Roof Removal

A great many garages built before the mid-1980s were roofed in corrugated asbestos cement sheet. It is recognisable by the profile, the grey weathered surface and the crumbling edges at the fixing points. It is also brittle, which is why nobody should be walking on it or breaking it up with a hammer.

What we do is assess it and advise the safe, compliant route under the Control of Asbestos Regulations 2012, including whether the sheets are non-licensed or licensed work and what has to happen to the purlins and the fixings once the covering is off. We do not carry out licensed asbestos removal ourselves, and we will say so at survey rather than after the scaffold is up. Once the roof is clear, we build the replacement, whether that is a profiled sheet covering to BS 5427 or a new insulated flat deck.

We take on garage roofing too.

Pricing and Typical Costs in Knaphill

Nobody should be pricing a garage roof off a phone call. The figure depends on the deck condition, the size, the abutment detail, the outlet position, whether scaffolding or an edge protection system is needed and whether the existing covering has to come off in one lift or two.

The survey is free, carried out with no obligation, and it settles all of that before you commit to anything. Included in the written fixed price you get: the strip and disposal, any deck replacement in the correct grade of board, the covering and all trims, the outlet and gutter work, and the making good of upstands and flashings. Our own roofers do the work, not subcontracted strangers, which is why the price does not move once it is written. Every garage roofing job carries the same 25-year written workmanship guarantee as a full house re-roof, handed over before the team leaves site. If a repair will genuinely see you out, that is what we quote for.

Installation Process and Timescales

A single garage is commonly a one-day job and a double garage one to two days, weather depending. The sequence is the same either way.

Survey and written price

Roof and deck inspected properly, including a drone view where the access or an adjoining roof makes it useful. Falls, outlet position and abutment details recorded, then the fixed price issued in writing.

Strip and deck preparation

Old covering removed and taken away, joists checked for rot and spread, and the deck replaced in 18mm WBP plywood or OSB3 as the system requires, screwed rather than nailed at the specified centres.

Covering, falls and details

Firrings set to give a fall to the outlet, insulation and vapour control layer installed where it is a warm roof, then the membrane or sheet laid, trims mechanically fixed and all upstands and lead flashings dressed to Lead Sheet Association guidance.

Handover

Outlet and gutter tested with water, site cleared, and the 25-year written guarantee handed over. Whether you need garage roofing in Knaphill or a new roof replacement in Knaphill, we work across the whole area with the same team.

Scott has spent more than 36 years on Surrey roofs and still answers the phone himself, at whatever hour it rings.