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The best flat roof roofing material is without a doubt a single sheet of rubber tailor made for weather-proofing flat roofs, such as Firestone’s EPDM product.

This is laid directly onto roof boarding, itself supported by the roof rafters and nagging. Insulating commercial roofing is generally laid in the space between the two, and if you are renewing your flat roof anyway you might as well take the opportunity of renewing that simultaneously.

This will almost certainly be the recommendation you obtain from any reputable builder or roofer advising you on replacing your existing flat roof.

Until recently the most popular material for a fresh flat roof was bituminous felt laid in three layers, the first layer nailed down and top of the two bonded to the one beneath with mastic bitumen. With regards to the material used, this could mean heating a good bitumen-based compound to make it liquid, and then pouring it onto the underlying felt and spreading it evenly over the whole area of the roof.

Then you had to hold back for the compound to cool before applying another layer, and by the end spreading a layer of stone chippings on the roof and bonding it with a chipping compound, this being to reflect natural sunlight preventing the felt and bitumen degrading quickly.

This was altogether a rather messy, complicated and time-consuming job best left to the experts. In addition, there have been several stages where it had been very easy to fail to make the roof weather-proof, e.g. where in fact the edge of the felt met the existing tile or slate roofing of the pitch roof.

On top of that, if, or rather when, there developed a leak in the flat roof, it could be very difficult and messy to find out wherever the rain was getting back in. Seldom would the manifestation of the leak on the ceiling of the area below be directly below the source of it. Water could easily get through a weakness in the bitumen felt and travel along a rafter before descending to the ceiling board below.

The brand new generation of rubber-based flat roofing systems are far superior. Assuming you have reasonable DIY abilities then you can probably do-it-yourself, with one other person to assist. You can easily look for a local supplier of rubber flat roof roofing material online, and the existing price is around �6.65 per square metre.

Most suppliers cut the material to the exact size and shape that you require so are there no unnecessary joins, meaning no weaknesses and an exceptionally long-lasting, leak-proof roof.

The vital the main whole process is to ensure that there are no gaps between the rubber roof and any existing pitch roof where rain may penetrate. To ensure you can find no problems it is critical to run the rubber material up and beneath the tiles or slates of the adjoining pitch roof in order that any rain dripping from the lower-most row falls onto the rubber, with no chance for it over-lapping the edge and getting within the pitch roof.

Also, make sure that the existing slope of the flat roof towards the guttering or other means of water escape is maintained. The rubber is simply glued onto the roof boards and sealed where appropriate with metal brackets or bitumen in such a way that rain penetration is impossible. Mind that the glue covers the whole of the underneath of the rubber in order to avoid bumps in the surface which could obstruct the drainage of the water away.

Rubber roofs have been shown to last for more than 50 years under all weathers, so it really is the only flat roof roofing material that you should consider when deciding on a new flat roof.