told to replace newish flat roof without problems, just because we walk on it

piper2014

Just over 2 years ago we had our flat roof totally replaced. It now consists of 3 layers of bitumen paper. On top of that is tanalized wood supporting composite, 25 year lifespan, composite decking.

A builder has told us we should not walk on bitumen paper flat rooves even though we are really walking on decking supported by wood on 3 layers of bitumen paper.

We are disappointed we are being told to replace a flat roof with no reported problems just because he occasionally walk on it.

Is this advice correct?

System

who put the decking on?
the roof build up you have will most definitely fail at somepoint, bitumen isn't really suitable to have anything on top of it

piper2014

The man that added the decking was the same man that put on the 3 layers of bitumen paper.

zaax

Builders an't roofers. Put some money away and get it fixed when it leaks.

27col

What has it got to do with the builder. It's your roof, you can do what you like with it. I would have thought that a decked roof would have a fairly light footprint on the roofing material, and unless very heavily loaded, would not have much of a deleterious effect. Zaax is giving good advice.

piper2014

We would follow your advice about leaving the roof as it is, but our house is divided up into flats.

Another flat owner has made financial threats against us unless we change the roof. He said if it leaks in the future he will counter-claim on our insurance company and say it is our fault.

He is also saying unless we have it done now, neither he or the other flat owners will contribute to the repair and it will be more expensive next time. He is throwing everything in the mix and is saying he will claim his privacy in violated by the flat roof even though it was there was for 30 years!

He so frightened my family we did agree to have the flat roof changed. Now we realize we where frightened into this and we wonder what we can do.

System

was it a usable space before, i.e. did it have decking or a floor deck/balustrade etc on it?
if not you might find there would potentially be issues with overlooking/privacy - but that would depend on a lot of things...
if it's someone else's roof and it leaks I'd imagine there may also be issues if it's not been constructed correctly for it's current use - hard to know as every bit more info that comes changes the situation slightly!

piper2014

It has been a flat roof for the past 30 years.

Errata

Who owns it?

System

piper2014 wrote: »

It has been a flat roof for the past 30 years.

that doesn't answer the question of it's use