Ely Roofers handles flat roof installations and repairs in Willingham, and this page walks you through exactly what happens from the initial inspection to the moment we leave your property.
A flat roof is only as good as the installation behind it. The right material poorly fitted will fail just as quickly as the wrong material. Knowing what a properly executed flat roofing job looks like helps you ask the right questions before you book anyone, and helps you recognise when corners are being cut.
Below is a step-by-step account of how a flat roof job should be carried out, from the first inspection through to clean-up. We use this process on every roof we work on in Willingham and across the area.
Before any price is given or work booked, the roof needs to be looked at properly. That means getting up and physically inspecting the surface, not just looking at it from ground level. A ground-level look can spot obvious problems, but it will not reveal blistering, soft decking, failed upstand details or partial delamination of the membrane.
During an inspection we check the surface condition of the existing covering, the state of the deck boards beneath (by pressing and checking for movement or softness), all upstands and edge details, the flashings where the roof meets any walls, and the drainage outlets. We also check the condition of any fascia boards at the roof perimeter, because a failing fascia affects how the edge of the roof is finished.
The inspection outcome determines whether a repair is appropriate or whether a full replacement is needed. If replacement is needed, it also tells us how much of the deck is likely to need replacing, which affects the final cost.
On a full re-roof, the first job is removing the existing covering. Old felt is stripped back to the deck boards using flat shovels and scrapers. EPDM membrane is cut away and rolled up. Everything comes off cleanly - we do not lay new material over old on a full replacement job, because old material traps moisture and prevents a sound bond to the deck.
All stripped material goes into a skip or is loaded off-site. Once the deck is bare, we go back over every board. Boards that are soft, rotten or delaminated are marked out and cut away. This is not always possible to fully price in advance because you cannot see the state of every board until the covering is off. Any rotten deck timber found is replaced with exterior-grade plywood of the correct thickness.
With a sound, dry deck in place, we check the falls. A flat roof should have a slight slope towards the outlet, with a minimum fall of 1:80 across the surface. On older roofs where the fall is insufficient, a tapered insulation system can be installed over the deck to create the correct drainage angle without structural alteration. Getting this right is essential - a roof laid without adequate fall will pond water and fail prematurely regardless of the membrane on top.
Any insulation boards specified for the project are fixed to the deck at this stage. Insulating a flat roof from above (a warm roof construction) is the preferred approach because it keeps the structural deck above the dew point and reduces condensation risk within the roof build-up.
For an EPDM installation, the rubber sheet is rolled out across the deck and allowed to relax before bonding. EPDM is supplied in sheets large enough to cover many roofs in a single piece, which minimises the number of joins. The sheet is then folded back and the adhesive applied to both the underside of the membrane and the deck surface. Once the adhesive reaches the correct tack, the sheet is rolled back down carefully to avoid trapping air bubbles.
Edge and corner details are dressed and bonded separately. Where the membrane meets a wall, it is taken up the face of the upstand by at least 150mm and terminated with a purpose-made trim or a counter-flashing. These junction points are where most flat roof leaks originate, so they need to be done carefully.
For felt installations, each layer is laid in sequence with staggered joints and bonded with either hot bitumen or a torch. The mineral capsheet forms the final weathering layer.
Lead or aluminium flashings are cut, shaped and fixed where the roof meets any adjoining wall. The flashing overlaps the membrane upstand and is turned into a mortar joint in the masonry, then pointed in. This is what stops water running down the face of a wall and getting behind the roof edge.
Drainage outlets are checked, cleared and refitted. If the existing outlet is undersized for the roof area, this is the point to replace it. The membrane is bonded around the outlet collar to create a watertight joint at the most critical point on the roof.
The perimeter of a flat roof is finished with a metal drip trim that holds the edge of the membrane down and directs water into the gutter. If the fascia boards behind the gutter are in poor condition, replacing them at this stage is worth doing because the roof edge detail depends on a sound fixing. Fascia and soffit replacement is work we carry out alongside roofing as part of the same visit.
Once the roof is finished, we carry out a final check of every edge, upstand, flashing, outlet and join. We check that the membrane lies flat and is fully bonded across the deck, that no air is trapped beneath it, and that all trims are secure. Then the site is cleared. All off-cut material, old felt, packaging and debris is removed and the gutters are checked to make sure nothing has found its way in during the work.
If you want to know what your flat roof needs and how the work would be carried out, call Ely Roofers to arrange an inspection.
No obligation · We usually respond within 2 hours
Storm damage, active leak, damaged ridge - we aim to be on-site within 24 hours.
