Author - Steven Dickinson

Stripping an Old Felt Roof Laid Onto Decking

Note the little dots on the decking, indicating they opted to use a perforated 1st coat of felt. The idea behind this is that the 2nd coat of felt will only partially bond to the decking. This ensures that when it fails, the next roofer can remove the old felt without having to hack away at the decking. This can be a common problem, because when roofers don’t follow manufacturers’ instructions, and fully bond the roof, the cost of removing the old roof covering could be considerably more expensive.

Blog, Flat Roof insulation, Roof Decking, Warm Roof Cold Roof
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Parapet Wall Chimney Pots Being Dressed With EPDM Single Ply Rubber

This gives an idea as to what we were up against. Our specification for this new flat roof was to strip the old roof, apply insulation and re-roof using EPDM rubber. Just what we were going to do with the parapet walls and chimneys was always going to be up for debate and, as part of the pricing, we had discussed that a Provisional Costs (PC) sum should be put to one side to deal with the renovation of this area.

Blog, EPDM Rubber Roofing, Flat Roof insulation, New Flat Roof Systems, Warm Roof Cold Roof
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Thermal Bridging of an Insulated Flat Roof, Through the Front Fascia

In this video I explain problems with insulating a roof using the warm and cold roof construction methods. Whatever new flat roof covering you choose, e.g. EPDM rubber, Kemper, Liquid Rubber Triflex, if the specification of the insulation is not correct you could have problems which could include rotting joists.

Blog, Flat Roof insulation, Thermal Bridging, Videos, Warm Roof Cold Roof
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Lead on Flat Roofs Oxidising

The lead on these flat roofs is beginning to oxidise and break up before the end of its lifespan. Lead on roofs and flat roofs are supposed to last 30 to 60 years with very little maintenance. What we see more and more is lack of ventilation and roofs sweating; this problem is happening because of the lack of ventilation under the lead flashings.

Blog, Flashings, Lead, Videos
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Blocked Gulleys On Old Asphalt Flat Roofs

You must maintain your flat roof as blockages of the drainage system can cause big problems. Leaking flat roofs are often caused by water backing up and overflowing. Even new flat roofs sometimes leak, as the pressure of the water build up finds the smallest of problems with the roof. This is why we like using the liquid roofing system for new flat roofs, as they don’t have any joints that can leak.

Asphalt Flat Roofs, Blog, Videos
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Cold Flat Roof Construction Explained

Hopefully this video will help explain the difference between cold flat roof construction and warm flat roof construction, this video shows detailed drawings on how a cold flat roof is constructed. I link to two other videos, one on warm flat roof construction and one that’s an in depth comparison between cold and warm flat roofs also showing thermal imaging of poorly performing, insulated flat roofs. The animation program used was Sketch Up with lots of section cuts.

Blog, Thermal Bridging, Videos, Warm Roof Cold Roof
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