Flat Roof Repairs · Norbury SW16
Flat Roof Repairs In Norbury
Why is the newest roof on your Norbury house the one that leaks?
Repairs to felt, EPDM and GRP flat roofs over back additions, where they meet the older main slope
Most houses in Norbury have an old front and a young back. Between London Road and Pollards Hill, and along the roads towards Norbury Park and Green Lane, the Edwardian and interwar terraces and semis still carry their original slate or clay tile on the main slope. The flat roof over the back addition is another matter. It might be felt from the 1990s, rubber from five years ago, or fibreglass laid last spring. Being newer does not make it safer. A flat roof fails at its edges, its outlet and the line where it meets the house, and on these houses that line sits right under a century-old slope that sheds every drop of rain onto it. That junction is where we start.
Flat Roof Repairs quote in Norbury
Four details and somebody will come and look at it. There is no charge for the visit, no obligation afterwards, and if the answer is that your roof is fine, that is what you will be told.
The people behind it
Old roof, new roof, two brothers
A Norbury house often has two roofs of very different ages, so the person you speak to needs to keep both in mind. John and Mark, the brothers whose family firm this is, both keep track of every job on the books.
They tend to work through a quote together and get to the same answer without much debate. So a question about your flat roof never has to wait for one particular person. Whichever brother picks up can tell you where the job is up to.
1,000+
Roofs put right
10 year
Written workmanship guarantee
£0
To have somebody come and look
Repair first
Replacement is the last resort
Early warnings from a Norbury back addition roof
A younger roof gives different warnings from an old one. These are the ones we see most on SW16 back additions.
Damp where the back wall meets the ceiling
The upstand along the house wall was never dressed up high enough, or it was finished with sealant instead of a flashing. Rain coming off the main roof above hits that line hardest.
Rubber sheet pulling away at the edge
The trim or the adhesive at the perimeter has let go. On EPDM the middle of the sheet is rarely the problem. The edges and corners are.
A dark film and standing water by the gutter
Traffic grime and moss have built up at the outlet, so water drains slowly. Near London Road that film forms faster and holds wet against the covering.
Hairline cracks in a fibreglass roof
The deck underneath has moved, or the resin was laid on damp boards. GRP is rigid, so any movement below shows up as a crack on top.
What a Norbury flat roof repair from us involves
The slope above gets a look too
If old slates or tiles are slipping on the main roof, water pours down onto the flat roof below. We check the bottom courses and the gutter between the two.
We match the repair to the material
Felt, EPDM and GRP each need their own repair method and products. A patch that suits one will not bond to another, so we find out what you have before we price.
Edges done to last
Drip trims fixed and bonded, corners folded or formed properly, and the perimeter checked all the way round. Most young flat roofs that fail, fail here.
Outlets cleared of road grime
We clean the outlet and the gutter it runs into by hand, and check the fall towards them. A slow outlet is half the problem on roofs facing the main road.
Pointed at the right council
If anything you want done needs approval, we tell you it is Croydon, not Lambeth, before you lose weeks applying to the wrong one.
A written ten year guarantee
It covers the workmanship on the repair and comes with photographs of the finished roof.
Old front, young back: why Norbury flat roofs fail where they do
Whatever first covered the back addition, it has usually been replaced at least once, so the flat roof there is now younger than everything around it. The trouble is that a new covering was fitted to an old house. The wall it abuts may have soft mortar, the gutter it drains into may be original, and the main slope above it may be dropping slates or tiles. The flat roof gets blamed for water that arrived from somewhere older.
Then there is the road. London Road, the A23, runs straight through Norbury, and the grime from traffic settles on roofs nearby. On a north-facing flat roof that film never fully dries. It feeds moss, slows drainage at the outlet, and keeps the surface damp for hours after the rain stops. A covering that would last a long time on a clean site wears faster here, and the edges go first.
"On Norbury back additions, a leak blamed on a fairly new flat roof often turns out to come from the old main slope above it, or from the gutter between the two."
From flat roof repairs enquiries in Norbury handled by Roof Repairs Croydon
How we repair a flat roof in Norbury
Tell us about both roofs
Let us know what the flat roof is made of if you know, roughly when it was laid, and where the damp shows. A photo from the back bedroom helps a lot.
We survey front and back
No charge for this. Up on the flat roof we go round the trims, the outlet and the joint with the wall. Then we turn to the lowest courses of the main slope and the gutter that drops water onto the back.
We find the source
A moisture meter, a look at the ceiling below and, where needed, a careful water test tell us whether the flat roof or the old slope is letting the water in.
You get a fixed written price
Each part is listed: flat roof repair, edge trims, outlet, and any slate or tile work on the main roof. You can choose to do the lot or only the urgent part.
The repair
Failed edges and upstands are cut back and redone in the same system as the existing roof, outlets cleared and resealed, and any loose slates or tiles above refixed.
Handover
We clear up, send you photos of every detail we touched, and leave you our written ten year workmanship guarantee.
The 10 year guarantee, and why it is safe to offer
Promising a roof will stay dry is easy. What counts is what happens if it does not. Work booked through Roof Repairs Croydon carries a 10 year workmanship guarantee, on paper, handed to you on the day and written in language you can actually read. The slates, tiles, lead, mortar, membranes and rainwater goods carry their own manufacturer cover on top of that. It varies by product, so you get told which cover applies to your job rather than one headline number that would be wrong on most of them.
Here is the reason a guarantee like that is not a risk. Repairs come back for one reason above all others: the fault was never found in the first place. Somebody went up, saw a stain on the ceiling below, mended whatever looked worst directly above it, and left. Water does not cooperate with that approach. It lands on a slate, runs under it, drops onto a rafter and travels along the rafter before it finds anywhere to fall. On a wide hipped roof in Sanderstead or Shirley that can be five metres from where it came in.
Find the entry point and the repair holds for years. Miss it and no amount of guarantee wording helps anybody. That is why the survey happens before the price, and it is why, if the same water finds its way back into your house inside the guarantee period, putting it right costs you nothing.
10 year
Workmanship guarantee
1,000+
Roofs put right
Covered
Public liability insurance
Per product
Maker's own warranty
What to ask a roofer about your Norbury flat roof
Did they look at the main slope?
If nobody checked the old roof above, they cannot be sure the flat roof is the problem. Ask what they saw on the bottom courses and in the gutter between the two.
Do they know your system?
Ask them to name your covering and the repair method that goes with it. Someone who plans to put felt over rubber, or mastic on fibreglass, is guessing.
How are the edges being finished?
A good quote spells out the trims, the corners and the wall upstand. Vague wording about sealing the edges usually means a tube of mastic.
Repair the young roof, or replace it?
Because the back roofs here are often not that old, a repair is frequently the right call. This is how it stacks up against starting again.
| Comparison point | Repair the details | Replace the covering |
|---|---|---|
| Best when | The main sheet is sound | The deck is wet or the sheet has failed |
| Typical cause | Edges, outlet or wall joint | Age, bad laying or a rotten deck |
| Disruption | A few hours to a day | Back of the house busy for days |
| Keeps your system | Yes | Your choice of a new one |
| Spend | Smaller bill | Bigger bill, new clock |
| Building regs | Not usually | Possible above 25% replaced |
Stack trouble as well?
Tall Edwardian chimneys are common on these roads, and a tired flashing can send water down onto the flat roof or into the wall behind it. If the damp is near a chimney breast, take a look at what we say about chimney repairs in Norbury too.
What a flat roof repair in Norbury tends to cost
Most Norbury flat roof jobs are repairs to a covering that still has years in it. The price rises when the deck is wet or when the old roof above needs work too.
Which system you have
Repairing EPDM, felt or GRP uses different materials and takes different amounts of time. Fibreglass cracks, for example, need careful grinding back and fresh resin.
Grime and moss near the main road
On houses close to London Road and around Green Lane, traffic film and moss build up at the outlet and on north-facing roofs. Cleaning back to a surface new material will bond to adds time.
Work on the old slope above
Edwardian slate and clay tile around Pollards Hill and Norbury Park often has slipped pieces at the bottom courses. Refixing those while access is up is a small extra that stops the flat roof getting soaked.
Flat Roof Repairs in Norbury: questions
I live in SW16. Do I apply to Lambeth or Croydon for flat roof work in Norbury?
Croydon. The postcode is the trap: Streatham shares SW16 but sits in Lambeth, while Norbury belongs to the London Borough of Croydon. No permission is generally needed to put the same kind of covering back on a flat roof. Replace more than 25% of it and building regulations may require better insulation. The old LCC cottage estate here has been a Croydon conservation area since 2008, so if you live there, ask Croydon Council before you change the look of a roof.
Why is my Norbury flat roof dirtier than my neighbour's further from the road?
Traffic on London Road leaves an oily grime on nearby roofs. On a flat roof, especially one facing north, that film holds moisture and lets moss take hold. It also slows water at the outlet. Hand-cleaning the outlet and gutter a couple of times a year helps. Pressure washing a membrane is not a good idea.
My flat roof is only a few years old. Should it be leaking already?
Not if it was laid well. When a young roof leaks it is usually at a detail: an edge trim, the outlet, or the upstand against the house wall. Sometimes it is not the flat roof at all, but water coming off the old main slope above. Both are usually repairable without replacing the whole covering.
Can you repair rubber or fibreglass, or only felt?
All three. EPDM is repaired with compatible primers, tapes and patches. GRP is ground back and relaid with fresh resin and matting. Felt is cut out and torched or bonded. The important thing is using the right method for the roof you have, which is why we confirm the system on the survey.
Will you check my old slate main roof while you are there?
Yes. On Norbury houses the main slope and the flat roof affect each other, so we look at the bottom courses, the gutter and any flashings between the two as standard. If the main roof needs work, we price it separately so you can decide.
What Croydon homeowners say
From roads across the borough, once the ladders had gone.
"Damp patch on our landing ceiling for about three years. Two roofers had been out and both mended the tiles directly above it, and neither made the slightest difference. This chap spent twenty minutes in the loft with a torch before he even went outside, then showed me a photo of a split in the lead in the valley about four metres away from the stain. Fixed it in a morning. Three winters on and nothing."
"Water was coming down the front bedroom wall every time it rained hard and I had convinced myself the roof was finished. It was the gutter. Half of it had dropped so the water was sitting in the middle and going over the front rather than down the pipe. He reset the brackets and cleared the gully, charged me a fraction of what I had budgeted for, and told me the roof itself had years left. Could easily have sold me a new one."
"Ours is in the Chatsworth Road conservation area and I had no idea the rules on roof work here are stricter than the rest of Croydon. He knew straight away, explained what I could and could not do without an application, and did the repair in matching slate. That saved me a very awkward conversation with the council later on."
"Lost most of the ridge tiles along the back in a February gale. Rang in the morning, sheeted the same afternoon so the weather could not get in, came back the following week when it was dry and rebedded the whole ridge properly. Sent me photos of everything for the insurance without me even asking. The bill was exactly what the quote said it would be."
"Gutters had been overflowing under the trees for years and the fascia behind them had gone soft. What I appreciated was that he explained why the timber had rotted rather than just quoting to replace it, and pointed out the new soffits needed vents or I would end up with condensation in the loft instead. Nobody had ever mentioned that to me before."
Had us out to your roof?
Two minutes writing a review does more for a small local firm than any amount of advertising, and it helps the next person in Croydon work out who to ring.
Things to do in Norbury
Three open spaces near Norbury for when the work is done and the weather is better.
Norwood Grove
Campaigners stopped houses going up on Norwood Grove, and the Prince of Wales opened it as a park in 1926. It slopes up towards Streatham Common, and both the white Victorian house and the grounds are Grade II listed.
View on Google Maps - Norwood Grove
Pollards Hill
Nowhere in Norbury is higher than Pollards Hill, which Sir Frederick Edridge, a past mayor of Croydon, handed over for public use in 1913. Look for the Victorian drinking fountain and the view to the Epsom Downs.
View on Google Maps - Pollards Hill
Norbury Park
Before Croydon bought it in the 1930s, Norbury Park was golf course. Now it is the largest open space on this side of the borough, with the Norbury Brook winding past pitches and a playground.
View on Google Maps - Norbury ParkNorbury on the map
It takes us about 18 minutes to get to Norbury from South Croydon. Whatever the SW16 postcode suggests, planning and building control here belong to Croydon, not Lambeth.
Areas we cover
Back additions with newer flat roofs are found right across the borough. Find your town in the list to see its page.
Flat Roof Repairs by town
Leak at the back of your Norbury house?
Call us, or send a photo of the back roof and the stain inside. The visit is free, both the young flat roof and the old slope above it get checked, and you receive a written price that will not change.