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.
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.
We eventually got things sorted, unfortunately one of the flat roofs started to leak (or more likely been leaking for ages, but took a while to show via a damaged ceiling).
We have a large flat roof over a 2 storey kitchen extension, the Rooftec system involved replacing the roof boards (though for this roof we agreed to let them overboard what looked like good quality OSB board) and then fiberglassing over the new wood. Fibreglass is used on boats, so in theory should be better than a flat felt roof.
Not sure if poor quality work or poor design, but because the join between the flat roof and the main building wasn’t sealed correctly water falling off a higher roof was finding it’s way into the property from two points!!
Rooftec had added rendering strip on the existing wall to redirect water away from the joins, but underneath this rendering strip water could splash into the opening between the roof and the wall.
In 90% of properties I guess this wouldn’t be a problem, but we have a dormer flat roof which water pours from when it rains excessively. The water drops 2 storeys, so significant splashing is inevitable.
I fixed this by filling the gaps with mortar, but it really shouldn’t have happened.
Will take some photos as the above is difficult to explain.
Suffice to say we had to remove another ceiling that got wet, one that in theory we didn’t have to remove, though glad we have since we found a previous roof replacement had left LOTS of the old roofing material including the stone chips on the plasterboard (the weight could cause the ceiling to fail, so better dealt with now)!!!!
4 responses to Flat Roof Leaks
My flat roof fix hasn’t worked so not sure what the problem is, hesitant to call Rooftec back in so looks like another trip on the roof to see what the heck is going on!
Roofs were not meant to be flat. The H20 molecule is simply to tiny and the sun too degrading for any flat surface to stay waterproof for any length of time approaching more than a few years at best. There are ways to convert flat roofs to one with a small amount of pitch. Water runs off and never sits and penetrates.
I had a flat roof in Upstate New York and with the freezing and thawing it was the only way to go (make it pitched).
Flat Roof Leaks
I wouldn’t reccomend even having a flat roof. Thanks for the post and information, it’s been pretty useful.
Yea flat roofs are a pain. Just the name insinuates problems.
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