The best flat roof roofing material is undoubtedly a single sheet of rubber custom 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 generally laid in the space between your two, and if you are renewing your flat roof anyway you might as well take the chance of renewing that concurrently.
Roof Cleaning in Nottingham will almost certainly be the recommendation you obtain from any reputable builder or roofer advising you on replacing your existing flat roof.
Until recently the most used material for a fresh 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. Based on the material used, this could mean heating a good 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 hold back for the compound to cool before applying the next layer, and by the end spreading a layer of stone chippings on the roof and bonding it with a chipping compound, this being to reflect natural sunlight 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 was very easy to fail to make the roof weather-proof, e.g. where in fact 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 would be very difficult and messy to learn wherever the rain was getting in. Seldom would the manifestation of the leak on the ceiling of the area below be directly below the source of it. Water could get by way of 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 find a local supplier of rubber flat roof roofing material online, and the current price is around �6.65 per square metre.
Most suppliers slice the material to the exact shape and size that you require so there are no unnecessary joins, meaning no weaknesses and an extremely long-lasting, leak-proof roof.
The vital section of the whole process is to ensure that there are no gaps between the rubber roof and any existing pitch roof where rain may penetrate. To ensure there are no problems it is critical to run the rubber material up and beneath 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 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 whole of the 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 real flat roof roofing material that you need to consider when deciding on a fresh flat roof.
