What a flat roof repair involves
A repair is about the one area that has failed, not the whole roof. On a typical visit we walk the surface (where it's safe to), press for soft boards, look closely at every seam and edge, and check where the rain is meant to drain. Only then do we decide what needs doing. Fixing the obvious split while the real entry point sits at a wall junction a metre away is how people end up paying twice.
Felt and bitumen roof repair
Most older flat roofs around Taunton are felt: layers of bitumen-based sheet bonded to the deck. Felt roof repair usually means cutting out a blister or split, drying the area and torching or bonding a new piece over it with a good overlap onto sound material. Where the chippings have washed off and the sun has dried the top layer out, we may reseal the surface or suggest a full flat roof felt replacement instead, because a patch can only stick to felt that is still in decent condition.
Bitumen roof repair on older built-up roofs follows the same idea. The weak area comes out, the layers are rebuilt and the new work is lapped onto old so water can't track underneath.
Repairing rubber and fibreglass roofs
Newer systems fail in different ways. On a single-ply rubber roof the usual problems are a seam that has lifted, a puncture from a dropped tool, or the membrane pulling away at a trim. Our EPDM rubber roofs page explains how that material behaves. A fibreglass roof is more likely to show hairline cracks where the laminate meets a trim or where the deck has moved; those are ground out and re-laminated. There's more on that on our GRP fibreglass roofs page.
Upstands, outlets and edges
Plenty of leaks have nothing to do with the main sheet. Where the roof turns up a wall, the upstand and any flashing above it have to stay sealed. Outlets clog with leaves and moss, and the water that backs up finds the nearest gap. Edge trims crack or work loose and let wind-driven rain under the covering. We check each of these on every repair job, because they are cheap to put right compared with the ceiling underneath.
When repair stops making sense
If several areas are failing at once, the deck is soft in more than one place, or the roof already carries a patchwork of old fixes, a repair is money spent on a covering that is finished. In that case we'll explain the replacement options in EPDM, GRP or torch-on felt, and what drives the price in our flat roof cost guide. You decide; we won't push a new roof when a repair will do.
Water coming in now?
Put something under the drip, move belongings away and keep clear of wet light fittings. Our flat roof leaking guide covers the likely causes while you wait. We offer emergency leak call-outs, so ring 07399 680142 and describe what you can see.
Areas and quotes
Tell us whether a previous patch has failed in the same position or whether this is a new leak elsewhere. That history helps distinguish a recurring junction fault from a covering deteriorating across the roof. Do not apply another coating before the visit: it can obscure the original split and make a compatible repair harder to specify.
We repair flat roofs on extensions, garages, dormers, porches and commercial buildings across Somerset and Devon, up to about 50 miles from our Taunton base, which takes in Exeter and the towns between. Every flat roof repair quote is free and in writing. Use the contact form or call to book a visit, or browse all our flat roof services.