Flat roof repair: materials and technologies used

Flat roofs gradually conquer the private housing market. There are many reasons for this, but one of them is important - an increase in service life and ease of repair. In this article we will tell you how to repair a flat roof, what materials are used for this, how long the life of the roofing structure is prolonged after the repairs.

Materials for covering flat roofs

Flat roofs are very rarely used in private housing construction. In the recent past, it was the prerogative of civil and industrial construction. And the material with which such roofs were covered was roofing material. That is cardboard, saturated with bitumen. It was laid in several layers, promazyvaya hot bitumen.

Such a roof covering served no more than 5 years. Under the influence of low temperatures, the roofing material began to crack, because it did not have sufficient elasticity. In summer, on the contrary, it softened and expanded, forming voids beneath it. Every year, repair services checked roofing roofs for defects. And residents of apartment buildings living on the top floor, knew exactly when the roof went down by smudges on the ceilings.

And then the repair began, which lasted for several weeks, because working with hot bitumen and roofing felt is not easy. In addition, the point repair, that is, the patch of defects, did not lead to the required results. Therefore, most often the flat roof was covered with another repair layer completely, spending a lot of money and effort.

The appearance on the market of more modern roofing materials to cover flat roofs made it possible - first, to increase the service life of roofing - up to 30 years, no less. Secondly, the materials themselves, which included polymer additives, have become more elastic and maintainable. So, bitumen-polymer roll materials based on fiberglass appeared on the market, which is processed with a mixture of modified bitumen and some polymer. More often for this today they use polyvinyl chloride, also known as PVC.

But it should be noted that even such strong and elastic films cannot guarantee one hundred percent service in terms of what they will "work out" on the roofs of the time stated by the manufacturer. Because, as practice shows, there are three reasons for the appearance of defects and flaws:

• marriage of the roofing material ;

• illiterate installation on a flat roof ;

• resource reduction during operation , that is, the longer the coating is on the roof, the faster his technical characteristics are reduced.

Statistics show that the first position is rare. The last two are more common. In general, the installation of roofing should be approached from the perspective of professional installation. After all, the roof of the house is its protection from natural loads, where precipitation comes first. What can happen if the roof is improperly covered, everyone knows.

Types of roofing defects

To begin with, we define the types of defects that are most often found on flat roofs. These are standard defects: cracks, through holes, air bubbles, detached edges and other.

It should be noted that the repair of PVC flat roofs should be divided into two categories: simple and complex. The first includes minor defects: small punctures, short crack lengths. To the second - air bubbles and detachment.

Repair of minor defects

For example, if it is a crack, then the easiest way is to heat its edges and roll it with a small roller. The fact is that PVC roofing membranes are self-adhesive materials. Processed with a special adhesive composition, they do not lose it for a long time, even if a detachment has occurred. Glue almost throughout the entire life of the flat roof does not lose its characteristics. Therefore, heating it, that is, putting it in a plastic state, we can guarantee that it will still serve for many years.

If the hole in the roofing is small, the same puncture, then proceed in exactly the same way. If a hole is, say, a few centimeters, then you can’t do without a patch here. It is cut from the same PVC membrane so that it covers the defect 5-10 cm on each side. After that, it is placed in the place of the flaw, heated with a special welder that generates a jet of hot air, and rolled with a roller, strongly pressing against the roof covering.

The only thing that needs to be taken into account when repairing PVC membranes is to pre-dry the place which is being repaired. Because the moisture accumulated in the defect of roofing, will resist the bonding process. So, it is necessary to get rid of moisture. For drying use all the same welding machine or construction dryer.

On our website you can find contacts of construction companies that own a full cycle of their own production, provide services without prepayment , provide a loan or installments for construction , as well as take into account funds of maternity capital . Directly to communicate with representatives, you can visit the exhibition of houses "Low-rise Country".

Overhaul of flat PVC roofing

If the defects of the flat roof are significant, then a spot repair will not help here. We will have to carry out a set of measures or the so-called overhaul. It is carried out by different technologies.

• If there are a lot of defects on the roof, they are located evenly over the entire area and at the same time tight to each to a friend , it is better to old roofing not to dismantle the coating . For example, a large number of small cracks. It should be cleaned of debris, dry well and cover with primer. The latter is a liquid material based on polymers or bitumen, which, on drying on the roof plane, forms a film with high adhesive properties. And already on this plane, PVC membrane can be laid, closing the roof completely. In this case, they use standard technology with gluing the edges of the strips by hot welding. This technology is considered the cheapest , because no n It is necessary to remove the old coating, and the polymer membrane itself is laid in one layer.

• If defects roofs are large and there are many . In this case, it will be necessary to dismantle the old roofing coating up to the waterproofing layer, which covers the heat-insulating cake. Here it is very important to correctly approach the process, so as not to damage the waterproofing , and even more so the insulation. If this happens, the lower layers will have to be repaired, and this is an increase of repair budget . So, the waterproofing layer is whole, now it is necessary to process it with a primer, and already above the PVC membrane should be laid using the standard technology. Depending on the angle of inclination of the flat roof from 1 ° to 5 °, the number of membrane layers can vary from 2 to 4.

• if leaks were not in time found , then you have to overhaul not only the roofing, but the entire roof as a whole. It is clear that precipitation and water from the melted snow penetrated into the layers of insulation, vapor barrier and screed, damaging them significantly. Therefore it is necessary to dismantle all these layers. Sometimes they try not to touch the screed, but only carry out repairs on wet areas. Although it is better to remove the entire screed layer, to get some kind of guarantee. And after that, restore all layers of roofing pie with subsequent laying of the PVC membrane in several layers. It turns out that this repair option is the most expensive and labor-intensive .

On our site you can find contacts of construction companies that offer an audit of construction work, roof repair, reconstruction and rebuilding of houses. Directly to communicate with representatives, you can visit the exhibition of houses "Low-rise Country".

In order to avoid problems associated with major repairs, it is recommended to periodically inspect the flat roof for minor defects and take urgent measures to eliminate them. And also to carry out cleaning the plane from debris, which, as practice shows, is often the cause of the appearance of defects. That is, this way you can avoid the big expenses of money, because, for example, repairing a flat roof in Moscow costs a lot of money. Here are the average prices for operations:

• installation of a PVC membrane in a single layer - 600 rubles. / m² ;

• dismantling of strictly roofing - 400 rubles. / m ²;

• installation of insulation with a layer of 100 mm - 250 rubles. / m ²;

• primer treatment - 110 rubles. / m² ;

• screed filling - 550 rub. / m² ;

• laying steam or waterproofing - 60 rubles. / m² ;

• cleaning and garbage collection - 3000 rub. / t .

In the video, an expert tells how to repair a flat roof covered with a PVC membrane:

How to repair a flat roof covered with other roll materials

In addition to PVC membranes, which belong to the group of self-adhesive roll materials, flat roofs are covered with other roll-type products:

• Adhered . To do this, use bitumen mastic , which is first applied to the roof surface, and then not spread out into strips and roll coating, rolling it with a roller. The bands, as in all technologies, are laid with an overlap of 10-15 cm, the edges of the overlap are also coated with mastic.

• Welded roof . This is also rolled material , only it is heated with open flame from a gas burner before it is laid. Bitumen deposited on the reverse side of the material melts and becomes semi-fluid. He also serves as an adhesive.

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Repair these roofing materials differently than PVC membranes. For example, if these are minor defects: small cracks or holes, then they are simply covered with bitumen mastic, they are applied with a spatula.

If the roof defects are large, for example, a long and wide crack (hole), then it is covered with a patch of the same material as the roof itself. The patch is cut out more than the size of the flaw by 5-10 cm. The defect itself is well treated with bitumen mastic, the patch is laid, rolled with a roller, and after drying, another thick layer of mastic is applied on top, covering the entire patch area and the borders of the joints.

If the defect of a flat roof is an air bubble or a bulge, as a result of which moisture gets under the coating, The defective area is cut into four halves with a sharp knife, as shown in the photo below, further:

• dry the defective area with a building dryer;

• treated with mastic ;

• pressed the petals of the cut into place;

• roll them with a roller ;

• are treated with mastic ;

• are laid over defective plot patch ;

• they press it and roll it with a roller;

• on top of they put the bitumen mastic in a thick layer.

As with PVC membranes, overhaul a flat roof covered with other types of roll materials, is produced in the same way. That is, with the complete dismantling of the roofing or with the complete dismantling of all the layers with which the roof was laid.

The video shows one of the technologies for repairing a flat roof:

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Repair of a flat roof from a professional flooring

Most often the professional flooring fails for two reasons:

• reduced service life due to the protective layers become thinner, hence the formation of fistulas (through holes) and areas covered with rust;

• large point load , which leads to the formation of holes or a strong concavity of the material , and this leads to the formation of gaps at the junction of the two panels.

The ideal option in the first case is to carry out a complete replacement of the roof covering. Because the material worn out by time and natural loads will fail all the time. And its repair is a waste of money, time and effort.

As for the second option, small holes can be repaired by extending the life of the profiled sheets. Repair technology a bit. One that is most often used is the laying of a patch cut from a roll of polymer-bitumen roofing material. They do it like this:

• clean the place of the defect ;

• dry it ;

• treated with bitumen mastic ;

• put patch , pressing it well and rolling with a roller;

• another mastic layer is applied on top with full closure of the joints of the two materials around the patch.

The video tells about the materials with which you can repair a flat roof:

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Conclusion on the topic

So, we have dismantled the topic of repair of flat roofs.From the information provided, it becomes clear that the complexity of this process, and accordingly the price of repairs, depends on the complexity of the defects, their number. Therefore, it is not necessary to bring the roof to a state where it is necessary to carry out major repairs. You just need to, at least once a year, conduct its inspection for the appearance of defects. And then get rid of them.