A flat roof fitted to a home in Santon Downham will perform well for many years if it receives the straightforward, low-effort maintenance that most homeowners overlook.
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Pitched roofs shed debris, drain quickly and are largely self-cleaning. Flat roofs are not. Leaves, moss, windblown grit and standing water all accumulate on a flat surface, and over time each of these causes accelerated deterioration of the membrane. The good news is that the maintenance involved is simple and takes very little time - the problem is that most people only think about their flat roof when it is already leaking.
Brandon Roofers installs and repairs flat roofs in the Santon Downham area and nearby Brandon using EPDM rubber and modern felt systems. Both of these outperform old-fashioned mineral felt, but no flat roof membrane - however good - will reach its potential lifespan if debris and blocked outlets are left unattended year after year.
Every flat roof drains through one or more outlets - usually a downpipe outlet at the edge or a through-roof drain. If that outlet blocks with leaves, moss or compacted debris, water backs up on the roof surface. Prolonged ponding puts pressure on every seam, joint and upstand, and forces water into any weakness in the membrane that might not otherwise have caused a problem for years.
Clearing the outlet takes five minutes with a gloved hand. Doing it twice a year - once in late autumn after leaf fall, and once in spring - is enough for most properties. If you have overhanging trees close to the roof, three or four times a year is more sensible.
You do not need a roofer to carry out a basic visual inspection of a flat roof. From ground level, or carefully from a window or Velux that gives a view of the surface, check for the following once a year:
None of these require you to get on the roof. If you spot any of them, call a roofer before they become a leak. Small problems caught early are almost always cheaper to fix than leaks that have been tracking into a timber deck for months.
Moss retains moisture against the membrane surface and, over time, its root structure can work into small cracks in felt or around the edges of EPDM seams. On a flat roof where water already sits longer than on a pitched surface, moss significantly shortens the membrane's useful life.
A moss-killing treatment applied to a dry roof surface and left to work over several weeks is effective. Do not pressure-wash a flat roof membrane - the force can damage the surface, open fine cracks, and blast water into every seam and upstand detail. Gentle brushing off of dead moss after treatment is sufficient. If moss has been left for a long time and the surface is heavily colonised, it is worth having a roofer assess whether any damage has occurred beneath it before treating and leaving it.
Blisters are raised bubbles in the felt surface caused by trapped moisture or air beneath the membrane. Small, stable blisters that are not cracked and have been the same size for years are generally not an immediate problem, though they indicate that moisture got into the system at some point. A blister that is growing, that has cracked open, or that appears wet to the touch is an active failure point and needs attention.
Do not attempt to cut open or patch a blister yourself with a DIY sealant. The correct repair involves cutting back to sound material, drying the substrate, and bonding a new section of membrane with the appropriate adhesive. A DIY patch held with roof sealant will last one season at best.
The junction between the flat roof membrane and any wall, parapet, pipe or rooflight is the point where leaks most commonly begin. At these upstands, the membrane is bonded or dressed up the vertical surface and either mechanically fixed at the top or covered by a lead or aluminium flashing.
These details are subject to thermal movement - the membrane expands and contracts with temperature changes, and over years the bond at the top of the upstand can loosen. During your annual check, look specifically at these junctions. Any gap, crack or lifting at an upstand is worth addressing before it becomes a leak.
A new flat roof installation, whether EPDM or a torch-on felt system, should not require any intervention in its first year beyond keeping the outlet clear. However, it is worth carrying out the visual check described above at the end of the first winter. The reason is that the first winter puts the most thermal stress on any new installation - expansion and contraction cycles, frost and prolonged rain all test the detailing. If anything is going to show a weakness, it often does so in year one.
If you notice any lifting at an upstand or any pooling that was not there when the job was done, contact the roofer who installed it and describe what you have found. A good roofer will want to know.
EPDM rubber, properly installed, can last 25 to 40 years. Quality torch-on felt systems typically perform well for 20 to 25 years. Old-fashioned thin mineral felt is at the end of its reliable life at ten to fifteen years. These are not guarantees - actual lifespan depends on installation quality, the condition of the deck beneath, the exposure of the roof and, significantly, whether basic maintenance has been carried out.
A flat roof that is kept clear, inspected annually and has small problems addressed promptly will consistently outperform the same installation that has been ignored. That is the practical case for a maintenance habit - not because anything dramatic needs doing, but because a short inspection twice a year is far cheaper than a rotten deck.
Some things should not be left until the next inspection cycle. Call a roofer promptly if:
These are active problems, not things to monitor. The longer water has access to a timber deck, the more damage accumulates below the waterproofing layer - and that damage is always more expensive to repair than the membrane issue that caused it.
If your flat roof has not been looked at for a few years, or if you have just bought a property and you are not sure of the roof's age or condition, call Brandon Roofers and ask for a flat roof inspection. We will give you an honest picture of what is there and what, if anything, needs attention.
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Call any time. Calls are answered day and night and passed straight to our roofers.
