Felt roofs are common across Cotham's older housing stock, and most homeowners with one eventually face the same question: is it still worth patching, or has the time come to replace it properly, often with a longer-lasting material like EPDM? There are a few reasonably clear indicators that can help answer that question.
Age is a reasonable starting point. Felt roofing generally has a shorter working life than newer materials, and while the exact figure varies with quality and installation, felt roofs often need replacing within a decade or two, considerably sooner than a well-installed EPDM membrane, which is commonly guaranteed for twenty years or more. If your Cotham property's felt roof is getting on in years and starting to show its age, that's a reasonable prompt to have it assessed.
The pattern of any leaks matters too. A single, isolated leak might be genuinely repairable with a patch or localised fix. But felt that's cracking, blistering or lifting in several different places is usually a sign the material itself has deteriorated generally, rather than there being one specific fault to fix, and in that situation repeated patch repairs tend to become a recurring cost without ever really solving the underlying problem.
Ponding water is another useful indicator. If water is sitting on the roof for more than a day or so after rain rather than draining away, it's often a sign the falls have become inadequate, sometimes because the deck itself has begun to sag - something a surface repair to the felt won't resolve.
The condition of the deck underneath the felt is, again, the deciding factor in many cases. If water has been getting through the felt for a while, even in small amounts, the timber decking can begin to rot, and once that's happened, replacement of both the covering and the affected decking becomes necessary regardless of how the felt itself looks on the surface.
When a felt roof does need replacing, it's a good opportunity to consider upgrading to EPDM rather than simply reinstating another felt covering, since EPDM generally offers greater durability and a longer service life for a similar overall job.
Cost is naturally part of this decision too. While a patch repair is cheaper in the short term, a felt roof that's genuinely reaching the end of its life will likely need further repairs within a year or two, and those repeated costs can add up to more than the price of a proper replacement once you look at it over a realistic timeframe.
A proper inspection remains the best way to make this call with confidence, rather than relying on guesswork about how much life is genuinely left in an ageing felt covering.
If you have an ageing felt roof in Cotham and aren't sure whether it needs repair or replacement, it's worth getting a proper assessment rather than guessing. Brunel Roofing Bristol can inspect your roof and deck honestly and advise on the most sensible way forward.
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