The best flat roof roofing material is without a doubt an individual sheet of rubber tailor 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 generally laid in the space between the two, and if you’re renewing your flat roof anyway you may as well take the opportunity of renewing that simultaneously.

This will almost certainly function as recommendation you receive from any reputable builder or roofer advising you on replacing your existing flat roof.

Until recently the most famous material for a new 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. With respect to 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 area of the roof.

Then you had to wait for the compound to cool before applying another layer, and at the end spreading a layer of stone chippings on 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 fail 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 might 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 room below be directly below the source of it. Roof Cleaning in Lincoln could get by way of a weakness in the bitumen felt and travel along a rafter before descending to the ceiling board below.

The brand 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 around �6.65 per square metre.

Most suppliers cut the material to the exact size and shape that you require so there are no unnecessary joins, meaning no weaknesses and an exceptionally long-lasting, leak-proof roof.

The vital the main whole process is to make sure that there are no gaps between the rubber roof and any existing pitch roof where rain may 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, with no 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 simply 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 entire underneath of the rubber in order to avoid bumps in the surface 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 it really is the only real flat roof roofing material that you should consider when deciding on a fresh flat roof.