The best flat roof roofing material is undoubtedly a single sheet of rubber custom made for weather-proofing flat roofs, such as Firestone’s EPDM product.
That 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 are renewing your flat roof anyway you might as well take the chance of renewing that concurrently.
This 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 the upper two bonded to the one beneath with mastic bitumen. Depending on 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 section of the roof.
Then you had to hold back 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 natural sunlight and stop the felt and bitumen degrading quickly.
This was altogether a fairly messy, complicated and time-consuming job best left to the experts. In addition, there have been several stages where it had been 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.
In addition, if, or rather when, there developed a leak in the flat roof, it will be very difficult and messy to find out wherever the rain was getting in. Seldom would Roof moss removal near me of the leak on the ceiling of the room below be directly below the foundation 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. In case you have reasonable DIY abilities then you can probably do-it-yourself, with one other person to assist. You can easily look for 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 size and shape that you require so are there no unnecessary joins, meaning no weaknesses and an extremely long-lasting, leak-proof roof.
The vital area of the whole process is to make sure that there are no gaps between the rubber roof and any existing pitch roof where rain could possibly 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 so that any rain dripping from the lower-most row falls onto the rubber, without chance for 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 method 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 whole of the underneath of the rubber in order 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 it really is the only flat roof roofing material that you should consider when deciding on a new flat roof.