The best flat roof roofing material is without a doubt a single sheet of rubber custom made for weather-proofing flat roofs, such as Firestone’s EPDM product.
This is laid directly onto roof boarding, itself supported by the roof rafters and nagging. Insulating material is normally laid in the space between your two, and if you’re renewing your flat roof anyway you might as well take the opportunity of renewing that concurrently.
roof lifespan 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 popular material for a new flat roof was bituminous felt laid in three layers, the first layer nailed down and top of the two bonded to the one beneath with mastic bitumen. Depending on the material used, this may mean heating a good bitumen-based compound to make it liquid, and then 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 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 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 were several stages where it was very easy to neglect to make the roof weather-proof, e.g. where 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 might be very difficult and messy to discover wherever the rain was getting back in. Seldom would the manifestation of the leak on the ceiling of the room below be directly below the source of it. Water could get through a weakness in the bitumen felt and travel along a rafter before descending to the ceiling board below.
The brand new generation of rubber-based flat roofing systems are far superior. In case you have reasonable DIY abilities then you can certainly probably do-it-yourself, with one other person to assist. You can easily find a local supplier of rubber flat roof roofing material online, and the existing price is only 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 vital 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, with no chance for 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 merely glued onto the roof boards and sealed where appropriate with metal brackets or bitumen so that rain penetration is impossible. Mind that the glue covers the entire underneath of the rubber so as to avoid bumps in the top which could obstruct the drainage of the water away.
Rubber roofs have been proven to last for more than 50 years under all weathers, so that it really is the only real flat roof roofing material that you should consider when deciding on a fresh flat roof.