Flat roof repair (garage)

Quenastoise

My neighbour and I share a garage, the roof of which was leaking.
Her father (not a builder, but an experienced enthousiast) offered to fix the roof for £ 250 (our share of materials). This involved removing the felt and the bitumen and laying OSB and fiberglass.

He spent 5 days, mostly working on his own, sometimes with helpers (including my husband for a day and a half)

The total cost was £ 300 for materials and £ 200 for labour, ie twice the price quoted.

How would that compare with a professional quote please ? (excluding the issues of quality and guarantee, I know, we should have thought of that too).

Also, any comment about fiberglass please ?

Many thanks in advance

iamcornholio

A father charging his daughter for labour? Nice one dad

If this is a whole new roof then its a fair price. If it's just a repair then perhaps not so good, it depends on the area

OSB is a crap choice for a roof deck, it will disintergrate at the first sign of a leak. And if the boards are not thick enough and if the fall not good enough, then expect early failure of the covering

Insulation in roofs is normally required nowadays, but not for a garage

Quenastoise

Thank you. The work involved removing the pitch, cleaning the surface and laying the fiberglass, so not sure if you would describe that as repair or laying a new roof

Our share of the roof cover 18 ft x 9 ft
On that basis, what would you say ?

ankspon

I'd say robbery

ormus

i priced up the materials from wickes for my flat roof.
it came to about 200 quid.
so i got a local chap in to repair the roof properly with hot asphalt for 250 quid. took him about 4 hrs.
i was well worth the extra 50 quid to save me about two days work.

Dr.Shoe_2

The thing is, fibreglass is the very best material to use and most of the "proper" roofing companies are using it now for many reasons, the chief of these is that it is seamless and you are using the same materials that sailing boats are made from and if they're waterproof then your garage is going to be too! Another good reason is that it goes on cold so you don't need hot flame so no fire risk.

It is more expensive but should last a lifetime whereas a bitumen roof will need replacing every 15 years or so.

Proper OSB (and not chipboard) is the right material to use and does not disintegrate when it gets wet.

iamcornholio

Is this DIYer enthusuast really laying a fibreglass roof cover? I presumed it was fibreglass insulation and the roof cover was actually felt

OSB is a poor choice for a roof deck as it looses its strength really quickly once wet - even if it is grade 3. And for refurb work most DIYers will just get some standard 12mm board from the nearest shed, which is normally not thick enough either