Flat Roof Repairs · Thornton Heath CR7
Flat Roof Repairs In Thornton Heath
How many patches deep is the roof over your Thornton Heath kitchen?
Felt, asphalt, rubber and fibreglass repairs to rear additions and back extensions on the terraces of CR7
Lean out of a back bedroom window on Beulah Road, Parchmore Road or Grange Road and you will probably be looking down at a flat roof. It sits over the kitchen or bathroom at the back of a Victorian or Edwardian terrace, with slate on the front of the house and a parapet wall running up between you and next door. The flat bit has had a hard life. Somebody painted it with bitumen, somebody else laid felt over that, and the asphalt underneath may be older than both. Thornton Heath is also the bottom of the slope. Rain off the higher ground to the south ends up here, and your outlet and downpipe take the strain first. Before we quote for anything, we find the layer the water is actually getting through.
Flat Roof Repairs quote in Thornton Heath
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, one look at your back roof
A Thornton Heath back roof with years of patches on it needs somebody to decide, plainly, whether it gets repaired or stripped. At Roof Repairs Croydon the owners make that call. John and Mark are brothers, the business is a family one, and they have always worked together without falling out.
More often than not they go through the figures as a pair before a price reaches you. Once the job is booked you have two people to ring, and both know it. Should John be tied up on a roof, it is usually Mark who answers instead.
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 failing back roof in Thornton Heath looks like
None of these need a ladder to spot. Look from the bedroom window and inside the room below, then match what you see.
A stain that moves every time it rains hard
Water is getting between two old coverings and running along the gap before it drops through. The hole and the drip can be a metre or more apart, which is why the last patch missed.
Water still lying in the corner by the outlet two days after rain
The outlet is partly choked with grit and moss, or it was set slightly higher than the roof around it. On low ground where downpipes are already working hard, that corner stays wet and rots first.
Bubbles and soft blisters across the surface
Trapped moisture between layers, swelling when the sun gets on it. It tells you the roof was covered over while it was damp, and that the layers are no longer stuck to each other.
Damp in the corner where the addition meets the parapet
The upstand against the party wall or the main house wall has cracked, or the flashing above it has come away. Rain running down the brickwork goes straight in behind.
How we handle a CR7 rear addition
We cut a test hole
Before the price is fixed, we open a small section and count the layers. You see the deck with your own eyes in the photos, so nobody is guessing about rot.
Old layers come off
Laying a new membrane over three failed ones gives water somewhere to hide. Where the roof needs re-covering, we strip back to timber and start clean.
The outlet gets sized properly
Plenty of these roofs drain through an outlet and pipe that were never meant to handle the run feeding them. If yours backs up, we tell you, and price a bigger one as its own line.
Parapet joints treated as part of the job
The covering is turned up the wall and finished under a lead or proprietary flashing. Mastic smeared along the top of an upstand is a two-year fix, and we do not use it as one.
Plain advice for flat owners
In a converted house, the back roof may belong to the freeholder or be shared. We write down what failed and where, which helps when more than one person is paying.
Ten years on the workmanship
A written guarantee comes with the finished roof, alongside photos of the deck, the upstands and the outlet.
Why Thornton Heath back roofs fail sooner
Start with the ground. This end of the borough is clay and sand of the Lambeth Group, down below the Norwood Hills, not the chalk you get further south. Water that falls on the higher parts of the borough drains this way. So when a storm comes through, gutters and downpipes here get a short, heavy load all at once. A rear flat roof with a sluggish outlet floods its own corner, and the water finds the oldest joint it can.
Then there is the history. The rear addition was the cheap part of the house to build and the easy part to reach. For a century, whoever had a tin of something and a free Saturday has been up there. We often find a single small roof carrying paint, felt and asphalt in the same square metre, none of it bonded to the next. You cannot repair a roof like that properly from the top. You have to take it back to something sound.
"When we cut into a Thornton Heath back roof, finding more than one old covering under the top layer is the normal result, not the odd one."
From flat roof repairs enquiries in Thornton Heath handled by Roof Repairs Croydon
Repairing a flat roof in Thornton Heath, step by step
Send a photo from upstairs
One shot of the roof from the back bedroom and one of the ceiling stain is enough for us to see the outlet, the parapet and the state of the surface.
Free visit and a test cut
We walk the roof, probe for soft spots, look at the outlet and the downpipe, and open a small patch to see how many layers there are and what the boards are like.
A price you can read
Repair and re-cover set out separately where both are honest options. Strip-off, deck boards, outlet work and flashings each get their own figure.
Strip and check the deck
Old coverings come off and go out through the hallway or side passage, bagged. Any boards that are wet or crumbling are replaced and the fall is checked before anything goes down.
New covering and edges
The membrane goes down, turns up the parapet and the house wall, and is finished under a proper flashing. Drip trims are fixed along the gutter edge and the outlet is sealed into the new surface.
Water test and paperwork
Where it is safe, we run a hose over the roof and watch it drain. Photos of the finished roof follow, along with 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
Three things to check on any Thornton Heath flat roof quote
Are they stripping or overlaying?
Ask straight out. If the answer is overlay and your roof already has more than one layer, the new covering is sitting on the same failure that caused the leak.
What happens at the parapet?
The joint against the party wall is a weak point on these terraces. A good quote says how high the upstand goes and what covers the top of it. Mastic alone is not an answer.
Is the outlet in the price?
On ground this low, a blocked or undersized outlet will flood a brand new roof. Check that clearing, resetting or upsizing the outlet has been looked at and costed.
Patch the top layer, or strip back to the deck?
Both have their place. On a back addition that has been patched for decades, the second is usually the one that stops the leak for good.
| Comparison point | Patch the top layer | Strip and re-cover |
|---|---|---|
| Suits | One clear split in a single sound layer | Several old layers or a soft deck |
| Finds hidden rot | No | Yes, every board is exposed |
| Fixes a wandering leak | Rarely | Yes, nowhere left for water to travel |
| Outlet and fall | Left as they are | Reset and checked |
| Price | Lower now | Higher, then nothing for years |
| Building regs | Not involved | Can apply once over 25% is replaced |
Damp by the chimney breast instead?
A stain near the back of the house is not always the flat roof. On a lot of these terraces a stack rises right beside the rear addition, and its flashings drip onto the same ceiling. If that sounds like yours, read about chimney repairs in Thornton Heath. One visit can cover the pair.
What drives the cost of a flat roof repair in Thornton Heath
A sealed upstand and a full strip-off are very different bills. These are the three things that usually decide which end of the range you are at.
How many layers are on it
Each old covering is more labour to strip and more waste to bag and take away. Terraces off Beulah Road and Parchmore Road often have two or three, and the price reflects that.
Water off the hill and the outlet it reaches
Around Thornton Heath Pond and the lower end of Brigstock Road, the clay ground and run-off from higher up put a lot of water through small outlets. Upsizing an outlet or a downpipe adds a modest line to the quote.
Getting the old roof out
A mid-terrace on Grange Road with no side passage means every bag comes through the house. We sheet the hallway and allow time for it, and that time is in the price.
Flat Roof Repairs in Thornton Heath: questions
Will Croydon Council want a planning application before my Thornton Heath back roof is re-covered?
No, not for like-for-like re-covering. The council for Thornton Heath is the London Borough of Croydon, and it does not need to approve a straight repair or re-cover. Renew over 25% of the roof area and building regulations can kick in, which usually means adding insulation to current levels. We flag that on the quote if it affects you. Across the whole borough, Croydon uses an Article 4 direction to bring small HMO conversions under planning control. It only bites when the roof job sits inside a wider HMO conversion. A repair on its own is unaffected.
Why does water from up the hill affect my flat roof?
The town sits low, under the Norwood Hills, and rain falling on the higher parts of the borough heads downhill towards it. In a heavy storm that puts a lot of water through gutters and downpipes in a short time. If your flat roof outlet is half blocked or too small, the roof floods at that corner and the water gets in wherever the covering is oldest.
My back roof leaks in a different place every time. Why?
Usually because there are several coverings on it and they are no longer stuck together. Water gets in through one split, travels along the gap between layers, and drops through somewhere else. Patching where the drip appears does not touch the actual entry point. Stripping back to the deck is the reliable fix.
I own the ground floor flat. Is the back roof my responsibility?
Your lease decides that, not which ceiling has the stain. In many converted Thornton Heath houses the roof is the freeholder's, or the cost is shared between the flats. We can give you a short written report of what failed and where, which you can pass on before anyone agrees to pay.
Felt or rubber for a small rear addition?
Both work. EPDM rubber goes on as one sheet, which suits a simple rectangle with few pipes coming through. Torch-on felt copes better with awkward corners and lots of upstands, and costs less. On a narrow back addition hemmed in by parapets, we often find felt is the more practical choice, but we price both if you want.
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 Thornton Heath
Three things to look at round Thornton Heath once the back roof stops dripping.
Thornton Heath Clock Tower
Look up at the clock tower where the High Street meets Parchmore Road and Brigstock Road. It went up in 1900, partly paid for by locals, and now has a restored copper roof.
View on Google Maps - Thornton Heath Clock Tower
Thornton Heath Library
Thornton Heath Library on Brigstock Road is a Carnegie building from 1914, locally listed, with a modern glass entrance pavilion and reading room added to the front.
View on Google Maps - Thornton Heath Library
Selhurst Park
Selhurst Park has been Crystal Palace's home since 1924. It is roughly a fifteen-minute walk from the station by Whitehorse Lane, and plenty of gardens here hear it on match days.
View on Google Maps - Selhurst ParkThornton Heath on the map
From Penwortham Road in South Croydon we reach Thornton Heath in about 15 minutes. Planning and building control here are handled by Croydon Council.
Areas we cover
Back addition roofs like these turn up all over the north of the borough. Pick your town below for its own page.
Flat Roof Repairs by town
Back roof in Thornton Heath leaking again?
Ring us or send two photos: the roof from upstairs and the stain below it. We come out free, cut a test hole, and put a fixed price in writing, with pictures of the layers and the deck.