The best flat roof roofing material is without a doubt a single sheet of rubber custom made for weather-proofing flat roofs, such as for example Firestone’s EPDM product.
This is laid directly onto roof boarding, itself supported by the roof rafters and nagging. Insulating material is generally laid in the space between your two, and if you’re renewing your flat roof anyway you might as well take the chance of renewing that as well.
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 initial layer nailed down and the upper two bonded to the main one beneath with mastic bitumen. With Soft wash roof cleaning near me to the material used, this may mean heating a good bitumen-based compound to create it liquid, and pouring it onto the underlying felt and spreading it evenly over 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 over the roof and bonding it with a chipping compound, this being to reflect the sun’s rays and prevent 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 in fact the edge of the felt met the prevailing 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 might be very difficult and messy to determine 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 easily get through a weakness in the bitumen felt and travel along a rafter before descending to the ceiling board below.
The new generation of rubber-based flat roofing systems are far superior. Should 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 current price is around �6.65 per square metre.
Most suppliers cut the material to the exact shape and size that you require so are there no unnecessary joins, meaning no weaknesses and an exceptionally long-lasting, leak-proof roof.
The vital part of the whole process is to make sure that there are no gaps between your rubber roof and any existing pitch roof where rain could possibly penetrate. To ensure there are no problems it is vital 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, with no possibility of it over-lapping the edge and getting within the pitch roof.
Also, make sure that the prevailing slope of the flat roof towards the guttering or other means of water escape is maintained. The rubber is simply glued onto the roof boards and sealed where appropriate with metal brackets or bitumen in such a way that rain penetration is impossible. Mind that the glue covers the entire underneath of the rubber to be able to avoid bumps in the top that could obstruct the drainage of the water away.
Rubber roofs have been proven 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 new flat roof.
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Aug, Tue, 2023