Flat Roof Repairs · Warlingham CR6
Flat Roof Repairs In Warlingham
Has the wind off the fields started lifting your Warlingham flat roof?
Repairs and re-covers to extension, garage, dormer and link roofs on large houses around Warlingham, Hamsey Green and Chelsham
Most of the flat roofs in Warlingham were never part of the original house. They arrived later, as a kitchen extension off the back of a big interwar detached house on Limpsfield Road, a double garage out towards Hamsey Green, or a flat-topped dormer squeezed between two hips on a postwar place near Chelsham or Farleigh. On a wide plot that has been extended more than once, you can find three or four separate flat roofs, each tied into the main roof at a different height. Closer to Warlingham Green, a tile-hung cottage may have a small flat addition at the back. Up here, with open field running away to the south and east, all of them take wind across their edges and rain thrown hard at the wall they butt against. That junction is usually where the water gets in.
Flat Roof Repairs quote in Warlingham
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
Two brothers on one flat roof price
A big extension roof with edges facing open fields is worth a second pair of eyes before anyone settles on a figure. The firm belongs to John and Mark, two brothers who keep it a family business, and they tend to sit down together over a quote and check the figures between them.
Once the work starts, they run the job and manage the team as a pair. That gives you two people to call, and either one can tell you what is going on with your roof. If one is up a ladder when you ring, you will usually get the other.
1,000+
Roofs put right
10 year
Written workmanship guarantee
£0
To have somebody come and look
Repair first
Replacement is the last resort
What a struggling flat roof looks like in Warlingham
Exposed ground leaves its own marks on a flat roof. These are the ones worth noticing, and the cause that tends to sit behind each.
Water on the ceiling only after a gale, never in ordinary rain
Rain is being pushed sideways up the abutment and over the top of the upstand. In still weather it runs off normally. The covering is often sound and the detail at the wall is too low or poorly sealed.
A ripple or bubble along the outer edge of the extension
Wind has got under the edge trim and is working the membrane loose. Each gust lifts it a little further. Left alone, a strip of felt or rubber can peel back in one storm.
Damp where a dormer cheek meets its own flat top
Dormers on complicated roofs collect water from the slopes around them. If the lead or tiles at the cheek have moved, water runs behind them and comes out on the flat roof's deck rather than its surface.
A dark stain in one corner of the garage ceiling
That corner is the low point. Water is collecting there, the outlet is blocked or set too high, and the deck underneath has been wet for a while.
How we handle flat roofs on Warlingham's bigger houses
Every flat section on the house
Extended houses here can have flat roofs at the front, back and side. We walk all of them on the visit, so a leak blamed on one is not actually coming from another.
Edges fixed for open ground
Trims on the side facing the fields get bonded and mechanically fastened. A drip edge held only by a few nails is the first thing a strong south-easterly finds.
Upstands taken high enough
Where driven rain hits the wall, the covering needs to rise well up the brickwork before the flashing covers it. Short upstands are a common reason Warlingham flat roofs leak in storms.
Junctions with the main roof sorted
If a valley or a tiled slope drains onto the flat roof, that water has to be taken off cleanly. We look at the pitched part above as well as the flat part below.
The covering that suits the shape
Rubber for a big plain rectangle, torch-on felt for a roof crowded with corners, GRP for anything you walk on. You get the price of each for your roof before you choose.
A written ten year guarantee
The repair is covered by our workmanship guarantee, given to you in writing once the job is done and photographed.
Wind, open fields and the way Warlingham flat roofs fail
A flat roof on a sheltered London terrace mostly has to cope with water lying on it. On a Warlingham house that faces open farmland, the bigger threat is moving air. Wind racing over a flat surface creates suction, and that suction pulls hardest at the edges and corners. If the trims are loose or the membrane was only partly bonded, the roof starts to lift from the outside in. Rain that comes in on the same wind does not fall onto the roof so much as get thrown at the house wall, and it runs down into whatever gap sits at the top of the upstand.
The houses add their own complications. Large interwar and postwar homes around Hamsey Green, Chelsham and Farleigh have usually been extended, sometimes more than once, and each addition met the existing roof wherever the builder could make it fit. You get flat roofs sitting below tiled valleys, link roofs between a garage and the house, and dormers with flat tops tucked into hips. Every one of those meeting points is a place where a pitched roof empties its water onto a flat one. When they leak, the stain indoors can turn up some distance from the actual fault.
"When a Warlingham flat roof lets water in, we usually find it is the edge facing the fields or the upstand against a tall wall, rather than a split somewhere out in the middle."
From flat roof repairs enquiries in Warlingham handled by Roof Repairs Croydon
Our process for a flat roof repair in Warlingham
You describe when it leaks
Tell us whether it shows up in every shower or only when the wind blows hard, and which way the wind was coming from if you noticed. That narrows the search before we even arrive.
A free look at every flat section
We go up on each flat roof on the house, check the edges, the outlet and the abutments, and look at the pitched roof that drains onto it. Then we look at the ceiling underneath.
Checking the deck
Walking the roof, a moisture reading and, if needed, a small exploratory cut show whether the boards are dry. Wet boards rule out a simple patch.
A fixed price in writing
You get the repair and, where it is worth considering, a full re-cover priced side by side. Any work to the pitched roof above is shown as a separate line.
Doing the repair
Failed covering is cut back to sound material, damp boards are replaced, the upstand is raised where it is too short, and edge trims are fastened for an exposed site.
Checks and paperwork
Before we leave we check the drainage, clear the outlet and photograph the finished roof. You get those photos with the ten year written 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
Questions to put to anyone quoting for a Warlingham flat roof
How will the edges be held down?
On an exposed house, the answer should mention bonding and mechanical fixing of the trims. If the quote says nothing about edges, ask, because that is where wind does its damage first.
How high does the upstand go?
Driven rain climbs walls. The covering should turn up the brickwork far enough that water hitting the wall cannot reach the top of it, and a proper flashing should cover that top edge.
Have they looked above the flat roof?
A tiled valley or dormer emptying onto the flat roof can cause the leak. Anyone who only quotes the flat surface may be pricing the wrong fault.
Spot repair or a new covering?
Which one makes sense depends on how old the roof is and how much of the deck is still dry. This is how the two options usually compare on a large Warlingham extension.
| Comparison point | Spot repair | New covering |
|---|---|---|
| Suits | One failed edge or upstand | A worn or wind-damaged surface |
| Days on site | Often under a day | Typically two to four |
| Edges refixed | Only the failed run | All of them, to suit exposure |
| Wet boards | Small areas swapped | Every soft board replaced |
| Price | Lower | Higher, with a fresh start |
| Building regs | Rarely relevant | Can apply past a quarter renewed |
Check the stacks while we are up
On the bigger houses here a chimney often stands right beside a flat roof or a dormer, and water coming down a stack can end up blamed on the flat bit below. If you think that might be happening, see our page on chimney repairs in Warlingham, or ask us to look at both on one visit.
What affects the price of a flat roof repair in Warlingham
A single lifted edge on a garage and a full re-cover of a wraparound extension are not priced the same way. These are the factors that do most to set your figure.
How exposed the roof is
A flat roof on a large detached house out at Chelsham or Farleigh, facing open fields, usually needs more edge fixing and a taller upstand than one tucked behind the house near Warlingham Green. That extra detailing is small per metre but adds up on a long perimeter.
How many roofs meet it
On a Hamsey Green or Limpsfield Road house that has been extended more than once, the flat roof may sit below one or two tiled valleys. If they are feeding the leak, they have to be sorted as part of the job.
The state of the boards
Nobody can say for certain until a section is opened. A few soft boards are a modest addition. A deck that has been wet for years turns a repair into a re-cover.
Flat Roof Repairs in Warlingham: questions
Does re-covering a flat roof in Warlingham need planning permission?
Generally not, if the new covering replaces the old one like for like. Warlingham is in Surrey and the planning authority is Tandridge District Council, not Croydon. It is also a parished area, so the parish council is consulted when an application does go in, for example if you want to change the roof's shape or add a roof terrace. Building regulations are a separate matter: if more than a quarter of a roof is being renewed, the insulation may need upgrading, and we will tell you if that applies to yours.
My Warlingham flat roof stays dry in calm rain but leaks in a gale. Why?
Because the wind is driving rain at the house wall and up behind the upstand, which stays dry when rain falls straight down. It is very common on houses facing open ground. The fix is usually a taller upstand and a properly sealed flashing, rather than a new covering.
Can strong wind actually tear a flat roof off?
It can peel one back, starting from the edge. Wind moving across a flat surface pulls upward on it, and the pull is strongest at corners and edges. If the trims are loose or the membrane is only partly stuck down, a gale can lift a strip and keep going. Fixing the edges properly is how you stop it.
We have a flat roof between two tiled roofs in Warlingham. Is that a problem?
It is a common arrangement on extended houses here and it can work well. The risk is that the tiled slopes and valleys either side empty a lot of water onto a small flat area. The outlet needs to cope with that, and the joins at each side need to be sound. We check both before deciding what to do.
Is Chelsham or Farleigh too far out for you?
No. We cover both, plus Hamsey Green, the village centre around the Green and the rest of Warlingham. It is roughly a quarter of an hour from us in South Croydon, so a survey is easy to fit in.
Is EPDM rubber a good choice for an exposed Warlingham extension?
It often is, particularly on a large plain rectangle, because it goes down as one sheet with no seams in the middle. What matters on open ground is that it is fully bonded and the edges are fixed well. On a roof crowded with corners and pipes, felt or GRP can be easier to detail.
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 Warlingham
When the roof is dry again, these are three good reasons to stay local.
Warlingham Green
The tree-lined, triangular green at the centre of the village, with the war memorial, shops and cafes around it. It is where the Remembrance parade and the Christmas lights switch-on happen.
View on Google Maps - Warlingham Green
All Saints Church
Warlingham's flint church dates from about 1250, with an 1857 restoration by George Gilbert Scott. Inside, a St Christopher wall painting survives from the 1500s.
View on Google Maps - All Saints Church
Blanchman's Farm Local Nature Reserve
Tandridge District Council's 23-acre reserve on Limpsfield Road, east of the Green, with woodland, two meadows, a pond, an orchard and a trail suited to wheelchairs and pushchairs.
View on Google Maps - Blanchman's Farm Local Nature ReserveWarlingham on the map
From South Croydon we reach Warlingham in about 14 minutes. Planning and building control there belong to Tandridge District Council in Surrey.
Areas we cover
Our flat roof work runs across the whole area, from the Surrey villages up into Croydon itself. Pick your town below.
Flat Roof Repairs by town
Flat roof giving you trouble in Warlingham?
Ring us or send a photo and a note of when it leaks. We will come out from South Croydon free of charge, check every flat section on the house and the roof above it, and give you a fixed price in writing.