Flat Roofing by Rooftec (Glass Fiber Flat Roof)
Note: I do not recommend using RoofTec for flat roofing work, the easiest of the roofs they replaced leaked in multiple places due to poor design.
Despite the positive nature of this blog post RoofTec are not a roofing company I’d recommend, please read all the comments at the bottom and read other relevant posts before hiring RoofTec. It sounds like their guarantee is not worth the paper it is printed on.
A year later and the roof below has leaked in two places due to a design flaw in their system, or to be more precise not following the system they say they use on their website. This has had me on the roof several times patching small gaps which water can splash/be blown into between the roof and the main building wall.
The roofers (Rooftec from Boston, Lincolnshire) are on site. They were booked for the 6th April, but rain had delayed a previous job, so they weren’t able to start on our flat roofs (we have 4 flat roofs!) until Monday 10th.
I’m glad they called us about the delays the day before, since there isn’t a phone at the house and I’m apparently the only person in the UK not to own a mobile phone :-) (never needed one) so would have been at the house last week waiting for non-existent roofers, that could have been fun (so thanks for the call Rooftec, appreciated).
Rooftec do glass fibre flat roofing which is guaranteed for 50yrs which is much, much better than anything else we looked at, next best was around 25 years guarantee, but with a standard felt flat roof we’d be lucky if it lasted 15 years, probably a lot less since we are within walking distance of the sea (salt in the air). So when the job is completed we should have a water tight fibre glass flat roof for decades to come.
Interestingly the Rooftec quote for all four flat roofs was less than some of the quotes for standard felt roofing, one roofer didn’t quote for the front dormer window (which is two windows in one, so around 5M in length) and it was still more expensive than what we are paying Rooftec and that bloke didn’t include replacing boards if needed (that would be extra!!). So we’ve upgraded the quality of our flat roofs to glass fibre for no more than a standard felt roof.
Anyway, a couple of roofers from Rooftec arrived early Monday morning, they started with the large flat roof over the kitchen/dining room extension (it’s a two storey extension with kitchen/diner on the bottom and two bedrooms above). This is what it looked like before the roofers started any work (image below).
They scraped the old felt off the roof to see the state of the boards below, if the boards were damaged they’d replace them, if not they’d overboard with sterling OSB boards. The stripped boards looked good with no signs of water damage or anything untoward (image below).
So the roofers overboarderded with new Sterling OSB boards. Quite happy that the original OSB boards aren’t damaged as it means a little extra insulation having it overboarded (image below).
They’d cut the original wood sides of the roof flat (so the roof was completely flat) so they could add pre fabricated fibre glass moulded edging (not sure what it’s called). This gave the front edge, left edge and the joins with the rest of the house including below the window I was taking the photos from (as you look at the image below) a raised lip, so rain water can only flow from the right edge into the guttering (see below).
After which they coated the roof in fibre glass matting with some kind of polyester resin (see above). This makes the roof water tight, but not pretty to look at (see below).
Since it was too late to start another flat roof that day (this was on Monday) and they had to wait for the resin to set before they can put the decorative coating over the waterproofed roof they called it a day.
On Tuesday morning Rooftec was on site and already working by the time we arrived. It was a very windy day (and rained later), so they didn’t want to start the three remaining roofs (it’s a 4 storey high building!), so they added rendering strips (the house walls are rendered) to the roof they worked on Monday so we can blend the rendering in later. Forgot to take a photo on Tuesday (doh!), so will get that on Friday when I go next.
Got to get the car MOT’d Thursday as it ran out last week (I completely forgot!) so can’t go tomorrow (had to work today, Wednesday as well)!.
I have to say so far I’m very impressed with the work and the roofers, three roofers from Rooftec so far (very friendly and polite). On Tuesday I was showing one of them the internal damage caused by water leakage etc… and was discussing possible problems with the sides of the dormer windows (two of the next three roofs are on dormer windows) and even though it’s not covered by the quote we got, he said they could add some side panels to prevent further problems, which is great as it saves me another job and possible expense.
Can’t wait to see how they have got on with the remaining roofs and will post about it when I get the time and images.
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April 15, 2006at 12:56 pm
Ran into a big problem with the last two flat roofs (on dormer windows), the Rooftec roofers didn’t do the job correctly (looks like they fibreglassed over the old felt, which is the wrong way to do it).
April 25, 2006at 10:49 pm
Anyway, his explanation was the roofers would have overboarded the roofs after cleaning of the old felt (like they did on the first roof), and they must have missed the significant damage because of the height (4 storey high) and wind!
Sounds like bullshit to me, so at this point I’m not impressed or convinced with the explanation, the way I see it is I’m off site a couple of days and they bodge the rest of the job assuming we would never find the problem!!
April 26, 2006at 9:46 pm
Have you an update on how Rooftec treated you after the problems above?
My hubbie had Rooftec in his top 3 roofing companies to call for flat roofing next month, but after reading your problems we aren’t sure now. Did they make everything right??
There aren’t any other glass fibre roofers like Rooftec in our location (Stamford) so if they are (or aren’t) trustworthy we’d really like to know.
TIA
Sarah
April 28, 2006at 2:31 am
Hey Sarah
Rooftec are making good the problems (they’ve stripped the two dormer roofs bare and put new boards down) and I plan to set out what happened above with additional images of the end product.
Right now need to get some sleep as I’m planning on going to the house tomorrow morning and it’s gone 2am, so I’m not going to get much sleep.
Will probably get this post updated over the weekend with new images, so not too long to wait.
David
May 4, 2006at 5:06 pm
When they discovered this blog, specifically this post - Flat Roofing by Rooftec (which was after they messed up the dormer roofs) I think they realized they’d have to make a significant effort to pull things around. I told them I’m blogging about the renovation and will be posting accurate and unbiased information here (which is what I’ve tried to do).
May 8, 2006at 4:39 pm
You were very lucky,
An Earlier Rooftec , trading fron Boston went bust and was sold on to - did you know they did not have public liability insurance and the damage they did to my drive could not be properly rectified. It took them nearly a year to respond to my request to have work done and when that did not work they then ignored quotes for further work and then went into liquidation. They have also been mentioned in the Mirror about the quality of their work.
Again i was fortunate that they corrected Faults on the roof before they went bust.
The 50 years guarantee is worthless.
May 14, 2006at 6:55 pm
We’ve had trouble with Rooftec! We placed an ordered in January for our flat roof with a replacement for the skylight included. They kept putting the job date back because previous jobs had been rained on. Finally on the 9th of March they arrived and began the job but unfortunately the skylight had not been ordered! They took off our old existing skylight and covered it with a piece of board, assuring us that the skylights only took a day or two to get delivered. They fibre glassed the roof and the bit of board covering the skylight hole and left saying that they would be back with the skylight and finish the roof at that time. It’s been 9 weeks since then and whenever we phone to ask what is happening we are told that the skylight has not arrived yet - that is when there is a manager available to talk to us. I’ll let you know if there are any further developments.
June 13, 2006at 12:13 pm
I had a quote from Rooftec that was almost half the cost of an equivalent hot felt roof .. with a 50 year gaurantee … it’s worth a gamble ( the odds are very good - they don’t make boats from felt ! )
This was over a new extension on new boards so was fairly straight forward , except the fitters laid one piece of fibreglass when it rained.
This caused the ‘curing’ process to be disturbed.
The rain stopped and the sun came out and dried off the rest of the roof.
The fitters carried on laying the fibreglass and made the roof watertight.
They came back the next day ( a long drive of over 2 hours each way ) and completed the job by sanding down the roof and gel coating to my chosen colour.
The fitters were very friendly and knew what they were doing.
I have no complaints at the moment … i’ll let you know in 50 years …. i’ll be 98 years old by then !
September 3, 2006at 12:44 pm
I cannot believe how gullable some people can be!!!
How can a company guarantee a roof covering for 50years and back this up.
How many companys do you know of that are 50years old or over?
They charge an average of £ 36.00 plus vat per m2 of glass fibre board and covering. This includes company running costs, labour and materials. They have no insurance company or trustfund backing their guarantee. They belong to no profesional body ie. NFRC, they have no BBA’ s for their roofing system. It has not been approved by any profesional body. They have, allegedly gone into liquidation 4 or 5 times (who’s counting!) and started trading straight away under a very similer name. They have numorous litigation casing against them pending, occording to the Boston area trading standards. They have had a spread in the Daily Mirror Saying how bad their workmanship is.
Need I go on……………………..
The reason they are so much cheaper than firms quoting for felt roofs is probably down to the fact that Rooftec have no public liability, against the felt roof firm who has had to pay a hefty premium for a Hotwork policy, around a minmium of £ 15000 a year!!
The only bullet proof GRP flat roof system is POLYROOF185
It has a Indepent 20year trustfund backed guarantee with a 30year BBA durablity guarantee. No other system on the British market can match this.
The moral of the story is ……If it sounds to good to be true……it probably is
Just type in Rooftec on google and have a good read!
December 28, 2006at 8:40 am
Glad I found this, Rooftec sound like a joke company with their promises of 24 hour response time - weve been waiting 6 months for a quote. Nationwide? As long as you’re north, south east or west Iincolnshire more likely. I shall stick well clear. Presumably you’ve been on to Trading Standards about them as they appear to have something of an ongoing relationship and the director is threatened with jail apparently if they fail again.
February 1, 2007at 12:57 pm
I fully endorse what Jason said. Polyroof 185 is the best fibreglass roofing system on the market. Over recent years we’ve used Polyroof for renovating our flat roof garage and extension and also for a new balcony. They’ve been in business for 25 years and have a good reputation. Their literature says they use flexible resins specially designed to accomodate building movements. It’s no use using the normal fibreglass resins that you’d use on a boat as they’re too rigid and will eventually crack and leak. Polyroof guarantees are 20 year insurance backed and fully transferable. In my opinion you wont find a better system or a better company to deal with.
April 25, 2007at 1:27 pm
Question: Are flat roofs really flat? I say no: if it doesn’t shed water… to the drains they there are not appropriate grades built into the direct the water…
So instead of a dry roof you’ve got a pond on your roof… Now I’m not talking about some puddles that would evaporate in the sun after a day or two… If there’s a pond on your roof the grades were ignored and you’ve got a bad installation of a “flat” roof… Your responses… please.
May 23, 2007at 5:45 am
[...] Anyone that’s followed my intermittent posts (sorry very busy with SEO consulting work and I’ve hurt my hip, so work ground to a slow crawl) will know we had our flat roofs replaced by a company called Rooftec and we had a few problems. [...]
June 15, 2007at 2:29 pm
the oldest fibreglass roof i’ve still got out there is 21 years and its coming to the end of its life so 50 years is a definate no no, most of the decent guys use plywood and not sterling board as a decking . its the same as any job in the building trade you get what you pay for and having a nice new van with bright signwritting on the side doesnt guarantee you’ll get a decent job…by the way none of my lads would work up 4 stories in wind and as an employer i wouldnt ask them to just to keep the price down ie scaffolding has its uses
August 7, 2007at 12:57 pm
Could you please let me know the price for a glass fibre flat roof on a detached garage measuring 6.6m x 7.0m. Currently the roof is a built up felt roof.
August 14, 2007at 10:02 am
Had our roof done by Rooftec has leaked 3 times ,had to redecorate 2 times .Phoned many times over last to weeks
reply we will phone back.No calls just a letter not signed but saying the old company went bust but this company will repair the leaks at a cost.25 years, 50 years may as well quote 1000
years guarantee because the paper its on can be used to block the leaks.Dont trust them , dont use them and watch out for a new name when they go down the drain again.YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
August 14, 2007at 1:40 pm
can the moderator please remove comments 16 by me as rooftec arrived today put card through door saying leak fixed many thanks your blog works Pworth
September 26, 2007at 9:36 pm
so how have your flatroofs stood up to the recent bad weather?would you recomend rooftec and their flat roofing system?many thanks mac
September 28, 2007at 1:52 am
Of the 4 flat roofs we had replaced so far the top 3 haven’t leaked, but the lower roof had two leak points due to poor design.
Basically if there was excessive splashing on this roof water could splash under a rendering strip: you can see the strip in the last image above on the wall to the left. It was added so water draining down the wall is directed away from the seam between the roof and the wall (which RoofTec didn’t waterproof!!).
I’ve been on the roof several times to fix it, first with cement (filled the gap with cement), but because there’s a paint layer it didn’t hold well and continued to leak so had to remove it and try other things.
Secondly used window sealant (about 5 tubes of it) to completely fill the gap under the rendering strip making the roof/wall seam water tight and it looks like that fixed it.
This is an obvious design problem, water splashes on roofs and so in any roof similar to ours water will be getting in the roof/wall seam!
To add to this we had a missing end pipe on some guttering (very easy to fix) and RoofTec has added their fibre glass flat roofing in a way that means I can’t reattach the end pipe without removing the guttering and lowering it about 5 inches or cutting into the new roof!
So no I wouldn’t recommend RoofTec, in fact I didn’t call them back when the lower roof began to leak, preferred to fix it myself so the job was done well.
David
September 29, 2007at 10:47 am
I am glad I read the previous comments re Rooftec. I have waited almost three months for a start date from them. I finally received a date 19/09/07, which they cancelled the previous day. Then on 24/09/07 they phoned stating that the dome I had ordered was now £800 not £400 as was previously quoted. That was when I decided to look elsewhere and came across the above comments.
Gordon
October 13, 2007at 6:14 am
We are based in Surrey and have been doing GRP roofing for over 20 years most systems you will find will only have 1 layer of fibreglass matting I have found out by failures in the past that this is not sufficient. the minimum should be two layers of matt all the joints in the boards should be taped with a further layer of matt and a final layer of surface tissue, you will then have a roof that will last for 20 years.
Also the gel coat should be applied if possible the same day.
I would be happy to answer any questions about GRP roofing.
October 20, 2007at 1:03 pm
Sorry to hear about the problems with Glass Fibre Roofing Companies, the system is sound and works well and a good guarantee would be around 25-30 years.
The problem is that this is a relatively new application for the material, and unless the workers are trained properly there is a good chance the job will not be to the correct standards, it also seems to me the price is set deliberately low.
Always ask for a copy of the roofers insurance, if they are reputable this will not present a problem.
I am currently Franchising a Glass Fibre Company roofing system and all franchisees will be thoroughly trained, it would be worth asking any company to provide trade organisation accreditations and staff training accreditations.
January 14, 2008at 4:18 pm
I was appalled by the pictures that I saw of this so-called roofing system.
Having been in the business for many, many years, both as an installer and a roof systems analyst/consultant, I would have to say that this is at best simply a roof coating and not a complete roof system, as was described. Also, using wafer/particule/fibre/mdf or any other kind of pressed board on a roof is simply assinine to begin with. These products swell with the slightest amounts of moisture, including condensation, so the mere fact of fiberglass being applied to their surface wont stop them from becoming defunct. Also the fact that they were overlaid on original boards is simply another attempt to cut cost, and cut down on disposal. As far as a fifty year warranty goes, as one has already said, not many roofing companies are around that long, so it is just plain stupid to believe in that. In reality you get what you pay for, in this case if it was half the price of a real roof, then you can guarantee that it will last half as long, if you’re lucky, that is. Real, longlasting roof sytems, are useally backed by their manufacturer, which in turn require the installers to be specifically trained to install their systems as they should be installed, to begin with. Without this installer/manufacturer bridge then of course any insurance company would simply deny coverage. Too many cowboys out there with a hammer in their hand, thinking that they can roof. Manufacturers are governed by many rules and regulations and as such, stay in business for long periods of time, providing that they use certified installers.
In the case of this particular system and any other coating, painting, spray on product out there, home owners could do the work themselves and probably get the same results if not better for a lot less money. I have spent over 30 years trying to educate people to the ins and out of roofing and still it never surprises me how some people will ignore the obvious just to try and save a little money.
January 21, 2008at 10:19 pm
After working with fibreglass for 12 years plus i was unemployed and went to work at roof tec, what a company what a joke. They say there system is guaranteed for 50 years a joke in it self……. anyone who knows anything about the thickness off glass would realise 450gsm matting is just not thick enough they dont even glass tape the joints….. so any movement in the roof would put stress on the joints, and even them are rarely staggered. I have worked for many companys even some of the best grp boat builders in the uk so i know what im on about. I often do the odd roof but i use a layer of 600 gram glass then a layer of biaxial which is a weaved matting with a light layer of chopped strand matting attached this material is very flexible and light wieght compared to glass alone. i never over lay new board on old board and always use ply board. sterling board is a cheap replacement. if you stand a piece of stirling board in the rain for a few hours you will see if coming to bits it useless for roofing..
Anyway ill leave you to make your own decission but what i will say is rooftec do have some good honest fitters and some that are no so good .
January 21, 2008at 10:28 pm
one more thing if you do get a fibreglass roof make sure the fitters dont catalize it to high as some people put way to much catalyst in it to make it go off quicker (make it go hard) which if this is done to fast it is not good for the glass as it burns it and makes life of the glass much shorter!!!!!!
April 4, 2008at 12:47 pm
Rooftec replaced a flat roof for me 18 months ago. I found their work to be of good quality and the fitters were friendly, helpful and punctual. I have had no problems since. My Father-in-law also had a roof fitted by Rooftec recently and was also completely happy with the finished work.
The ex-rooftec employer, who has left remarks on this site, appears to be very bitter towards the company, leaving me to wonder why?
June 4, 2008at 4:38 pm
well it depends on his nature, may be he had a bad experience with that company.
July 20, 2008at 2:06 pm
hi i have been working with GRP for about 6 years now and wondered if anyone know ’s of a training course set up in london somwhere that trains people in the GRP roofing trade .
many thanks
August 5, 2008at 1:11 pm
GRP if properly installed will outlast most other systems on the market, But it must be properly installed or it can be useless. we are a GRP company with vast experience in GRP lining Systems and have carried out some of the largest GRP lining contracts in Europe and Worldwide. there are many companies out there who have no idea of the complexities of GRP systems having read the above posts and done some investigation of other companoies systems I was shocked at what i found.
Upon making a telephone call to a large international company who have recently started advertising GRP roofing Systems (they also sell a lot of double glazing if you know who i mean) they sent round a sales person to give me a quote, exactly how he was supposed to do this when he turned up wit no ladder (the roof bieng 40ft up) he also turned up with very little knowlage of the system he was selling (obviosly i played the punter with a limited knowlage of GRP ” Oh i thing its the same stuff we used years ago to fix canoos etc”) and when asked some basic questions such as how thick will the finished system be how many layers of glass matting what type of resins will they be using he could not provide the answers.
Many companies specify they use 600 gramme matt when others use less as a point of sale and to gain precidence but our company never use less than and would not recomend for any application 2 x 450 giving 900grammes of Glass per M2 with the resin applied at 2.5 kgs per kg of Matt and then a further 0.4mm or 400 microns of top coat applied as soon as is practically possible this gives a system of aprox 3.5mm thick GRP System.
A system that has been used with no failiers on at least 3 0f Europes largest water featuresand numerous swimming /pools /ponds flat roofs chemical bunds etc. GRP is not rocket science and can be applied by most competent DIY ers but there is a great deal of science involved and it is easy to get it very wrong. Flat roofs have a bad reputation for leaks but a properly istalled system will give many years of maintenence free protection. If any body has any questions or just needs some impartal advice you can contact us @ Tnjatcps@aol.com.