Blog - London Flat Roofing

New website for London Roof Surveys

Because I’m getting old and because the demand for roof surveys has become so much, I have set up a new website called London roof surveys. I’m not actually competing with myself. I’m just trying to distinguish between doing roof repairs and new roofs and doing roof surveys and reports. London roof surveys is still part of the London flat roofing group. However, it’s there to catch more surveying work of roofs. London Roof Surveys new website It’s quite interesting the way the market has gone. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of roofers who understand how to build roofs any more and more and more my expertise find myself trying to sort out the problems that have been built into roofs lack of ventilation or the misunderstanding on how to fit an Air Vapour Control Layer (AVCL). Recently I have been writing articles for roofing today magazine. These articles highlight the problems we have in the roofing industry. Although I never trained as a surveyor and in fact, there is no such thing as a roof surveyor, I’m probably more qualified than a general surveyor to survey a roof, because of my knowledge in roofing, not only have I got a good [...]

Blog

Drone roof surveys

Over the past 5 years, we have been carrying out more and more drone roof surveys. This is mainly because the cost of drones has come down and we now carry drones with us all the time. Pros and cons of drone roof surveys: Pros Drone roof surveys enable us to survey the roof without climbing all over it and possibly breaking tiles. We can also get to places on the roof that we cannot reach with ladders. Our health and safety risk is reduced dramatically. Can work out cheaper if scaffolding had been necessary to access the roof. Cons You don’t get to probe the roof to see if anything is loose. You can’t use your weight to get an idea of deflection in a roof. You can’t move things and clean out gullies or valleys whilst on the roof. Conclusion Both drone roof surveys and traditional roof surveys by ladder have their places. We always arrive with a van and ladders and will gain access to a roof by ladder, if we can safely. However, we will revert to doing a drone survey if we cannot. The fact that we now carry drones with us all the time and the cost of the equipment is relatively cheap these days. The [...]

Blog, Buildings Insurance

New Roof Cost

Needs stripping and starting again, which adds to the new roof cost! New roof cost and how to keep the cost down. This is one of those things where the more you know, the worse it gets as you start to understand the complexity of what you’re about to do and the new roof cost and what’s involved in doing it properly! As a roofing surveyor, I’m constantly attending people’s houses after they have paid lots of money for new roofs, but I then have to tell them that everything is wrong and they need to completely replace the roof at some point, probably sooner rather than later. It’s mainly new loft conversions and extensions, as the trend at the moment (2022) is to get the builder to do all the work, including the new roof work. Even if a roofer is brought in to do the roof and finish the project, they will be working with the mistakes that have probably already been made. These mistakes normally start way back in the project, even as far back as the drawing stage. Generally speaking, On small projects like extensions and loft conversions (small doesn’t mean low cost, I’m talking £50K, £100K even £200K projects), even if the people doing [...]

Blog, Flat Roof insulation

Roof inspection for insurance Will this roof fail?

Outlet to small Roof inspection for insurance renewal on a large flat roof covered with mineral felt. The felt is in relatively good condition for its age however, look at the size of the outlet it’s tiny. It makes me wonder who designed this flat roof and how this ever passed building control. When designing a roof, calculations for water runoff is something the design team should have calculated and worked too. So the question is will this roof pass a roof inspection for the insurance renewal or not? The answer is yes, it will. What I will be righting in my roof inspection report will be that the roof is an old felt roof that still has probably 5 to 8 years of good service left if maintained and regularly inspected. In a sub-note Large flat roof with small outlet I will report that because the outlet is small regular inspections and cleaning of the roof should be undertaken to make sure the outlet doesn’t get blocked. Over the last five years or so, roof inspections for insurance companies have become something we are asked to do more and more. The insurance companies now ask for a “roof inspection for insurance” to be undertaken on a [...]

Blog

Roof inspections for insurance renewals.

Doing reports on roofs for customers whose insurance companies have asked for a condition report or roof inspections on the flat roof before they will renew the insurance on here property is now becoming a big part of your business. Over the last 4 years, we have gone from doing one a year to 8 a week, so much so that I’m ( Steven Dickinson) now solely doing roof inspections. Not only roof condition surveys but serves on roofs for potential house purchases; people wanting to know if the roof is in good condition before purchasing a house; I’m in a unique position to know only know most of the new legislation on roofs but also to be able to give a good indication on costs so they that can go back to the seller and perhaps negotiate on the asking price. Not only is there a demand for roof inspections or roof reports for insurance and for house purchases, but there is another more upsetting trend developing. Roof Surveyor on ladder surveying a roof Roof inspections and reports of new roofs installed badly Unfortunately, every week, I get calls or emails from potential customers with roofs that have been installed incorrectly and need [...]

Buildings Insurance

Roof Surveyor Near Me

Roof surveyor near me is one of the biggest searches on google, we may not be near you but we cover all of London, basically most of inside the M25. More and more I’m being asked to do roof surveys or roof reports for insurance renewals, it’s now becoming normal for the insurance companies to ask for a “Roof Condition Report” before renewing the insurance on a house or flat. Lots of people ask when booking “What’s involved with a Roof Condition Survey” Roof Surveyor getting access to a roof We need to know how many roofs need surveying – you may have more than one roof. We need to know what access is like onto the roof or roofs because it’s always best if we can actually get onto the roofs and have a good walk around. Sometimes we will use a drone if necessary, but inspecting a roof using a drone doesn’t always give you all the information you need. Drone roof inspections need to be booked carefully as we need the weather conditions to be good on the day of the roof inspection. Once we have the address and we know what access is like to the roof, we can then give you [...]

Blog

Lead roof venting

A customer asks about venting a lead roof Spired on by my Youtube vide Lead Roof Venting Lead is beautiful & cross venting vital for a cold deck roofs. Warm deck usually avoids the need for cross venting but I notice that the LSA & other lead sheet groups recommend cross venting even a warm deck flat roof where this should be unnecessary for a warm deck roof. What is your opinion on providing yet another set of counter battens & decking on top pf a warm deck roof when lead sheeting is applied rather them single ply? Have you ever seen or experienced internal sweating of a lead sheeted warm deck roof? Is it an over precaution when using lead? What is your view from the sharp end? Surely if the visqueen FB vapour barrier is applied well under the insulation & sealed to all the abutments, cross venting the top side of a warm deck roof should be totally unnecessary. REPLY The perfect flat roof is a warm deck roof with a cold vented roof over the top. The cold vented roof allows any moister that gets past the warm roof to escape basically you are building in redundancy into the [...]

Lead, Warm Roofs

Hybrid roofs explained

I explain what a hybrid roof is and how to make one I’m frequently asked if I install hybrid roofs and do they work. In this video, I try to explain: what makes a hybrid roof how a hybrid roof differs from the standard cold roof or warm roof constructions, which are widely used in the building industry the different ways you can form a hybrid roof. A hybrid roof is a mixture of a cold roof and a warm roof construction. If you are constructing a cold roof – If you totally fill the void between the joists with insulation, it’s a hybrid roof. You don’t vent the roof, it’s a hybrid roof. Or you don’t use any insulation at all, it’s a hybrid roof. Or a warm roof – I’m often asked if some insulation can be put inside the roof and some outside the roof. If you do, it’s a hybrid roof. However, if you only place a small amount inside and have at least 3/4 outside this will probably work, but it’s still a hybrid roof! You definitely can’t have more insulation inside, and less outside that just won’t work. Having different layers of insulation with air gaps under a warm roof will be a hybrid roof, and [...]

Blog, Videos

OSB Expansion and contraction do I leave a gap?

Expansion and contraction in OSB is not a problem ( I think) As far as I know, no gaps needed in 18mm T+G OSB the expansion is built-in. The lower part of the T+G this doesn’t meet the other side; however, the top use so I don’t understand how that works! I know they are moving over to a new under T+G soon, but that’s all I know. I’ve tried reading the BS EN 1995-1-1:2004+A1:2008 Eurocode 5: ( 145 pages but went to sleep) Tongue and groove do I leave expansion joints The expansion per meter if it gets damp is recorded at.03mm so it’s not much we always leave a perimeter gape of 10 mm and push the bards together lightly; some never go tight as the edges are fragile and brake and bind. I’ve covered roofs over 100 m² and never had a problem, that said we don’t put rigid roofing material on the roof its normally rubber. I get lots of complaints from people that have had GRP glass reinforced plastic flat roofs installed. They constantly complain about the banging noise that comes from the contraction and expansion. Nobody seems to know if this is because of how the boards have [...]

Blog, GRP, Roof Decking

Roof survey near me

When I go to my London flat roofing blog I see lots of people search for roof survey near me if they were only to put in the postcode so I knew what area they were in this would be very helpful. When we are carrying out roof surveys in and around London and enquire comes through we may be on the road doing other roof surveys and the possibility that we can just pop in because you are local then becomes extremely convenient not only for us but for the customer. Mainly the cost of doing roof surveys come from travelling to and from our office and the customer’s property. Inspecting inside a flat roof survey Writing reports on flat roofs Writing the reports for roof surveys and putting all the information together probably takes up 40% of the time spent doing a roof survey. At London flat roofing we not only do roof surveys on flat roofs but we also do roof surveys on pitched tiled roof’s. The insurance companies that insure private properties are now more frequently asking for a report on the condition of any flat roof and also pitched roofs mainly tiled roofs or slate roofs. If [...]

Blog