The importance of safety when it comes to flat roofs

The dreaded health and safety issue rears its ugly head! However, it makes perfect sense that when you’re talking about flat roofs – whether considering the maintenance, repair or replacement – ensuring the safety of your family, staff, home and our team is a must.

If your traditional felt flat roof is coming to the end of its life, you could be risking your family and/or staff’s health, as well as the overall safety of your building. For example, water leaking through a faulty flat roof could do significant damage to the joists and ceiling below it. Ignore the issue and you may end up with an expensive and potentially dangerous leak, which will not only ruin furniture, carpets and any precious items beneath it, but could also have a potentially fatal effect on your building’s electrics.

Felt roofs need regular maintenance in order to prolong their lives. It is important that they are kept clean, so all dirt, fallen leaves and twigs need to be cleared; the longer they remain on your roof, the more chance there is that the structure of your roof will be compromised.

However, treading on a flat roof is a big no-no as it can damage the slanting of the roof’s surface and lead to issues, with rain water being unable to run off. This can result in a build-up of water on the roof (ponding), which over time, saturates your flat roof and can eventually break through and leak into your building’s internal structure.

Plus of course, trying to clear debris from a height comes with its own perils, so make sure that you hire a professional. The money you spend is well worth paying when you consider the alternative.

We are incredibly proud of our 100% waterproof, maintenance-free single ply membrane roofing. In fact, we are so confident in the quality of our product that we offer a LIFETIME guarantee with every installation.

However, even the most experienced roofers understand the risks involved of working at height. Here at High-Tech Membrane Roofing, we run a highly efficient service, but the fact is that we are ruled by the weather. Wet, windy and icy conditions can present significant dangers to our installers; they could lose their balance and slip off the roof or drop materials, potentially harming themselves as well as other people, property and vehicles on site at the same time.

We take the safety of your family, staff and our team incredibly seriously. Therefore, although we try to minimise any disruption as much as possible, we will ensure that if the weather does mean a delay to your roof being replaced , we will notify you between 7am and 8am that day and our office will follow up to rearrange your installation date.