Flat roof repairs across East Sussex

Guide price

£170–£550

Repair price

Confirmed once the leak or damage is found

Condition survey report

£170–£330

Coverage

England, Wales, Scotland, NI

How much does a flat roof repair cost in East Sussex?

Guide prices including VAT at South East rates. We confirm the price once we've traced the leak or seen the damage.

Which flat roofs are common in East Sussex?

Flat roofs in East Sussex sit on low-rise post-war blocks of flats, shops with flat-roofed rear stores below flats and bungalows with flat-roofed side extensions and dormers. Much of the South East sits in the drier Thames catchment at roughly 730 mm of rain a year, so the usual failures are at joints, upstands and outlets rather than from sheer volume of rain. Approximate 1991–2020 regional averages based on Met Office data.

Building regulations in England

Replacing more than half of a roof over a heated room usually counts as renovating a thermal element, so it is insulated to current standards and notified to building control. Renovated roofs over heated rooms are insulated to around 0.16 W/m²K where that's feasible, and new extension roofs are built to 0.15 W/m²K. In East Sussex the application goes to Brighton & Hove City Council, Eastbourne Borough Council, Hastings Borough Council and 3 other councils. More on the rules.

What do you check and do on a repair visit?

We inspect the whole roof, not only the spot that is leaking, and tell you what we have found before any work starts.

A typical visit covers the covering itself (splits, blisters, crazing, lost chippings and open laps), the upstands and flashings at walls, edge trims and drips, outlets and gutters, any rooflights, and how water sits on the roof after rain. Where it is safe to do so, we check the deck for soft spots. Every roof is treated as fragile until a competent person has confirmed otherwise, and edge protection goes in before anyone works near an open edge.

The repair itself means cutting back to sound material, drying the area and repairing with the same system. We clear the outlets while we are up there, because a blocked outlet is a common reason a repaired roof leaks again. What the repair covers, and what it doesn't, is set out in the written quote.

Why does a flat roof leak in one place but drip somewhere else?

Because water rarely comes through the ceiling directly below the hole. It gets in at one point, runs along the deck, a joist or the top of the insulation, and drips wherever it finds a low spot or a gap in the ceiling.

That is why a patch over the damp patch so often fails. Before we repair anything, we work back from the stain to the likely entry point and check the usual weak spots: upstands where the roof meets a wall, flashings and cavity trays above them, laps and seams, outlets and gutters, drip trims, rooflight kerbs, and any fixings or cables that pass through the covering. The fault is frequently at an edge or a wall rather than in the middle of the roof.

Sometimes the cause isn't the roof at all. Defective pointing, a failed cavity tray or a cracked coping above the roof can let water in behind the upstand, and condensation in a cold roof can look exactly like a leak. Our guide to flat roof leaks covers these causes. If the path can't be found by inspection, a leak tracing survey is the next step.

Which towns in East Sussex do we cover?

• Brighton
• Eastbourne
• Hastings
• Bexhill-on-Sea
• Hailsham
• Seaford
• Rottingdean
• Crowborough
• Portslade
• Peacehaven
• Uckfield
• Lewes

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