Flat roofs in Stamford

The roofs you can't see from the street

Stamford's front elevations get all the attention, and rightly so. Round the back it's a different story. Kitchen extensions, garages, rear wings and garden rooms added over the years are often flat-roofed, and because nobody sees them, they get forgotten until water comes through. Those are the roofs we're usually called about here.

Choosing a finish for a stone house

All three of the systems we fit can work on a Stamford house. What decides it is the roof itself.

• GRP fibreglass if the roof has lots of corners, pipes or upstands, or needs to be walked on.
• EPDM rubber if it's a straightforward shape and you want a single sheet with few joins.
• Felt if a traditional finish suits, on a sound deck.

We'll recommend one, explain why, and put it all in writing.

Where the flat roof meets the stone

On an old limestone house, most flat roof leaks start at the join with the main wall. A good flat roof is turned up the wall and covered by a lead flashing set into a mortar joint, so water runs over the top of it. Get that wrong and it doesn't matter how good the covering is. We use Code 4 and Code 5 lead for flashings, and we take care cutting into old walls so the stone isn't damaged.

Before we quote

• We check the deck for soft or rotten boards
• We look at the fall, so water drains rather than pools
• We check outlets, gutters and edge trims
• We ask whether you'd like a roof light while it's open
• We ask whether the house is listed, as that can affect what's allowed

Daylight in a back room

Rear extensions on older houses can be dark. Adding an opening skylight while the flat roof is being replaced is the easiest way to change that. We've fitted four into a single workshop roof before, so one over a kitchen is no trouble.

Covering Stamford from Bedford

Stamford is at the edge of our patch. We plan flat roof work so it's done in as few visits as possible, and the work comes with our written company guarantee.