The best flat roof roofing material is undoubtedly an individual sheet of rubber custom made for weather-proofing flat roofs, such as for example 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 the two, and if you’re renewing your flat roof anyway you might as well take the opportunity of renewing that at the same time.
This will almost certainly function as 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 fresh flat roof was bituminous felt laid in three layers, the initial layer nailed down and the upper two bonded to the one beneath with mastic bitumen. Based on the material used, this could mean heating a solid bitumen-based compound to make it liquid, and pouring it onto the underlying felt and spreading it evenly on the whole section of the roof.
Then you had to hold back for the compound to cool before applying another layer, and by 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 rather messy, complicated and time-consuming job best left to the experts. In addition, there were 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 prevailing 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 would be very difficult and messy to find out wherever the rain was getting back in. Seldom would the manifestation of the leak on the ceiling of the area below be directly below the source of it. Water could easily get through 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 certainly probably do it yourself, with one other person to aid. You can easily find a local supplier of rubber flat roof roofing material online, and the existing price is around �6.65 per square metre.
Beyond the Initial Cost 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 ensure that there are no gaps between the rubber roof and any existing pitch roof where rain may penetrate. To ensure you can find no problems it is vital 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 possibility of 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 simply glued onto the roof boards and sealed where appropriate with metal brackets or bitumen in such a way 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 that could obstruct the drainage of the water away.
Rubber roofs have been shown to last for well over 50 years under all weathers, so that it really is the only flat roof roofing material that you should consider when deciding on a fresh flat roof.