A small leak, and a hall nobody could heat
St Mark's sits on Westmoreland Road, right on the edge of Bromley town centre. The church first got in touch about a small leak in the hall roof. The bigger problem came out when we talked: the hall was extremely cold in winter and very hot in summer.
That's what an uninsulated flat roof does. As Steve put it, heat rises "and obviously escapes through an inadequately insulated flat roof", and in summer the sun comes straight back in the same way.
Warm flat roof: 120 mm insulation over the old roof
Rather than strip the old roof off, we laid 120 mm rigid insulation board over the existing coverings and waterproofed it with a new three-layer high-performance felt. That turned it into a warm roof: the insulation sits on top of the deck, so the timber stays warm and the roof needs no ventilation.
It covered about 120 m² and took two weeks, working from scaffold with our banner on the railings below.
The result: a warmer church hall and no leak
The leak was fixed, and the hall is now warmer in winter and cooler in summer, with what Steve describes as significantly lower heating bills from the reduced heat loss.
Laying a warm roof over the old one
Laying over the existing roof, rather than stripping it, has two practical advantages on a building like a church hall. The old covering stays in place underneath while the new layers go on, so the roof is never open to the weather halfway through the job, and there's far less waste to take away.
It only works if the deck underneath is sound and dry. Insulation laid over wet or rotten boards just seals the problem in, and the deck goes on rotting out of sight. Where the deck isn't sound, the old roof has to come off first. More on how warm and cold roofs differ on our roof insulation page.
Flat roofs for churches, clubs and managing agents in Bromley
Steve describes St Mark's as very similar to the Beckenhamians rugby club roof, which was nearly twice the size at 220 square metres. We take on big flat roofs on buildings people rely on, and in Bromley we also work for Prime Management, the managing agents.
Torch-on felt is laid with a flame, so our insurance covers hot works, with £5m public liability and £10m employers' liability. High-performance torch-on felt is from £96 per m² inc VAT (£80 + VAT). See our commercial and block roofing page, and roofing in Bromley for the rest of our work in the town.
"On behalf of my church, I employed Raise the Roofs London Limited to install a new roof on the church hall of St. Mark's Church, Bromley. I have great praise for the company. Their cost was competative and the work excellent. The roofers gave a sense of professionalism, were very hard working and completed the job in good time. The company were very tidy and left no mess on completion. I would recommend them to any organisation or person requiring roofing work."
Trustatrader
