About Flat Roof Ipswich
Flat Roof Ipswich is a roofing business covering Ipswich and the surrounding Suffolk area. We repair and replace tiled roofs, slate roofs and felt flat roofs across the whole IP postcode district. The name reflects where the work started — flat roofing on garages and extensions — but the roofs we are called out to now run the full range, from a single slipped slate on a Victorian terrace to a complete strip and re-cover on a detached house.
Who we are
We are a small roofing outfit, not a national contractor with a call centre and a sales team. The person who comes and looks at your roof is the person who does the work. There is no sub-contracting, no commission-based surveyor, and nobody sitting in a van outside waiting to hand you a today-only price.
That structure decides most of how we operate. We can only take on the work we can properly do, so we turn jobs down when the diary is full rather than stretching and letting people down. And because the same person surveys and installs, the detailing is right — the edges, upstands and abutments where the majority of roof failures actually begin.
How we work
Every job starts with a free survey. We get on the roof where it is safe to do so, because the point where water shows up inside a house is frequently a long way from where it is getting in. Diagnosing that from the ground is guesswork, and guesswork is how people end up paying twice.
You then get a written price within 24 hours setting out what will be done and what materials will be used. It is a fixed figure, not a day rate. The single thing that can change is deck or timber replacement, because nobody knows the condition of the boards until the covering comes off — and when that happens we photograph it, show you, and agree the extra before carrying on. Nothing appears on an invoice that you have not already seen.
We will also tell you when you do not need the bigger job. If a repair will see a roof through several more winters, we say so rather than quoting a replacement. That costs us money on the day and earns us the phone call when the roof genuinely does need doing.
The roofs we work on
Ipswich has an unusually broad mix of housing for a town its size, and the roofing work reflects it. The Victorian and Edwardian terraces near the town centre are largely slate, and after a century the nail fixings corrode and slates begin to slip. The interwar and post-war estates further out are concrete tile, where the failures tend to be mortar bedding on ridges and hips, and perished underlay at the eaves.
Then there are the flat roofs, and there are a great many of them — garages, single storey rear extensions, dormer cheeks and bay window tops right across the IP postcodes. Suffolk gets driven rain and salt-laden wind off the North Sea, which puts far more strain on edge details and upstands than an inland county would. That is where flat roofs in this area fail, and it is why we take the perimeter detailing as seriously as the field of the roof.
What we install
On pitched roofs we work in tile and slate, including sourcing matching reclaimed slate where a period property calls for it. On flat roofs we fit modern three layer torch-on felt — a polyester reinforced, SBS modified system with very little in common with the pour and roll felt that gave the material its reputation decades ago.
We do not install rubber or fibreglass systems. A good deal of our work is stripping those off roofs where they have cracked, lifted or failed at the joints, and re-covering in felt. That is a considered position based on what we see on Suffolk roofs, not a swipe at other trades — but it means we will always be straight with you about what we would put on your roof and why.
Guarantees and standards
Every job carries a written workmanship guarantee, handed over on completion rather than promised verbally. Where a manufacturer guarantee applies to the covering, you get that in writing too. We are fully insured for public liability.
For independent guidance on roofing standards, specifications and what a homeowner should expect from a contractor, the National Federation of Roofing Contractors publishes information worth reading before you commission any roofing work.
Where we work
We cover Ipswich and the surrounding Suffolk towns and villages, with no travel surcharge inside our standard area:
We also work in Kesgrave, Martlesham, Needham Market, Capel St Mary and the villages around them. Have a look at our roof repairs and roof replacement pages, or call and tell us what the roof is doing.
Get in touch
Call 01473 974744 or request an estimate below. We will arrange a survey at a time that suits you, look at the roof properly, and put a written price in front of you within 24 hours. No charge for the survey and no obligation to go ahead.