If there is one thing that divides people – it’s the use of a flat roof. Most client assume they’re a maintenance nightmare. They can be. But so can a pitched roof – if old or built badly.
Flat roofs can also look ugly. In my opinion that comes down to the build. It’s assumed flat roofs are either for sheds or large scale office developments. This isn’t so. Remember that flat roofs will give you greater head height (in the domestic field generally) as well as increase your options for rooflight selection, rather than the good old velux unit.
Why is it that we design a flat roof with eaves detail (the banding to the perimeter) at planning stage which gets turned into a fold down asphalt version with a plastic boarding to the perimeter? This doesn’t look great, and will age badly compared with a considered roof detail. I always ask clients to talk to us, post planning, if the builder needs guidance on how to build the flat roof designed. But builders generally have their own way of building a scheme. It’s not always the way it was designed….Remember the outside of a property is just as important as the inside.
We realise this is complex for either clients or builders to tackle if it’s not a standard detail. So, we are producing a detail guide for flat roofs (a catalogue of construction details which the contractor and client can select from). This will include pitched roofs too.
Keep your eye on the blog, it will be arriving shortly.