How much to asphalt a balcony?
Discussion
My balcony sits over two garages, one of the garage owners has mentioned that my balcony is leaking into their garage and could I do something about it. Fair enough, so rung a couple of companies for quotes.
First one over the phone said they could repair the faults (that I decribed) for £450. Thought I would ring around and got another local company to come a take a look. He took a look and agreed the deep cracks need work but also pointed out other lesser cracks that without attention would grow and need work. He said to do the whole balcony would be £1,000
Not knowing much about this, would £1,000 seem reasonable to completely resurface a 24 by 5 foot balcony? My own opinion is £450 to repair a fault, then have to call them back and do another repair for £450 I might as well get the whole thing done at once.
First one over the phone said they could repair the faults (that I decribed) for £450. Thought I would ring around and got another local company to come a take a look. He took a look and agreed the deep cracks need work but also pointed out other lesser cracks that without attention would grow and need work. He said to do the whole balcony would be £1,000
Not knowing much about this, would £1,000 seem reasonable to completely resurface a 24 by 5 foot balcony? My own opinion is £450 to repair a fault, then have to call them back and do another repair for £450 I might as well get the whole thing done at once.
B17NNS said:
What sort of construction is it? Built up torched felt over a timber deck?
As above, brick built garages (4) below my place, my rear balcony sits above the rear two garages. Its asphalt, the sort of thing you find on pavements, heat it up, spread it over sort of thing. Obvioulsy they would need to break up the old stuff and take it away first.I can post some pics but its too dark now
Cotty said:
Not knowing much about this, would £1,000 seem reasonable to completely resurface a 24 by 5 foot balcony?
£1000. Three words. Pissing the Taking.A trip down to the builder merchant for the bitumen sealer and a bit of graft would see this done for £100 plus time. I'll search for the product name at work tomorrow.
sal 965 said:
Cotty said:
Not knowing much about this, would £1,000 seem reasonable to completely resurface a 24 by 5 foot balcony?
£1000. Three words. Pissing the Taking.A trip down to the builder merchant for the bitumen sealer and a bit of graft would see this done for £100 plus time. I'll search for the product name at work tomorrow.
Down that road lies only pain. The reality is that leaks through flat roofs can be very difficult to find. The defects the OP describes are typical of asphalt that has been down for a while.
£1k to resurface.....probably what I would expect. Depends to a large degree on issues that we don't know about like access etc etc. I have a quotation on my desk to refinish an asphalt balcony that is about 15' x 4'.....£5,500 + VAT. The asphalt element of it is about £1,200, the rest being made up of all sorts of things, access, protection etc etc. It is in the heart of the West End of course so that does lift costs.
I have learnt over many years that is a roof leaks, fix it...don't faff about painting goop of varying descriptions all over it. You'll do it time and again, have a roof that still leaks only it's covered in black slop.
What I would say is that the creases bulges and splits in asphalt aren't always the cause of leaks. It can be very difficult to trace the actual defect. Abutments are the normal places I would look at when first approaching a problem like this. Make sure flashings are good and so on. Asphalt fails due to the effects of heat causing it to move. That's why you find many asphalt roofs finished with solar reflective paint, white or silver normally. That's intended to reduce heat build up within the asphalt and keep it more stable.
As a building surveyor I can say that, without doubt, flat roofs have been the biggest pain in the ass I deal with.
My advice would be, bite the bullet, get it done to the right specification, deal with the abutments and upstands correctly. Problem solved. Do it that way and when the garage chaps say 'the roof still leaks' it can only be one persons problem....the roofers.
If its ashphalt I assume you have a concrete deck? you could do it in felt fairly easily and as long as you use a high performance felt it should be good for 20 years+ - I would imagine £35-40 per m2 for applying a 2 layer system - plus the cost of whatever edge protection etc - if you find a guy to do it without just bare in mind if he falls off he can sue you, also make sure he has heat works insurance before he starts !
Dont try do it yourself unless you want it to leak and look a dogs ear, dont get taken in by liquid or GRP coatings either these things fail quite a bit due to people installing them wrong
Dont try do it yourself unless you want it to leak and look a dogs ear, dont get taken in by liquid or GRP coatings either these things fail quite a bit due to people installing them wrong
sal 965 said:
Cotty said:
Not knowing much about this, would £1,000 seem reasonable to completely resurface a 24 by 5 foot balcony?
£1000. Three words. Pissing the Taking.A trip down to the builder merchant for the bitumen sealer and a bit of graft would see this done for £100 plus time. I'll search for the product name at work tomorrow.
It took me about 20mins to find the crack that was letting water in plus a number of other very small ones. A trip down to the local DIY store and about £20-£30 later I had some tape and sealer. Applied this liberally and for the last 5 years not a drop has come through. I was advised that this wouldn't last very long at all
Don't let yourself be ripped off by the 'experts', they'll simply want to replace things for the sake of their own pockets.
Cotty said:
Silver993tt said:
Don't let yourself be ripped off by the 'experts', they'll simply want to replace things for the sake of their own pockets.
If you are leaking in to someone elses garage i would be careful about what you "slop" on there just in case that falls on to someones pride and joy.
If you want to repair it yourself then you could as people said buy some sticky black stuff and try and do it yourself - if you want a contractor to do it - and do it right then £800 to £1000 is about right..
Considering
He has to strip existing
Prime it
apply new materials
cost of labour
His profit
cover of his overheads - insurances etc
If you want to repair it yourself then you could as people said buy some sticky black stuff and try and do it yourself - if you want a contractor to do it - and do it right then £800 to £1000 is about right..
Considering
He has to strip existing
Prime it
apply new materials
cost of labour
His profit
cover of his overheads - insurances etc
blackcab said:
If you are leaking in to someone elses garage i would be careful about what you "slop" on there just in case that falls on to someones pride and joy.
The garage owner showed me the interior of their garage so I could see where the water is comming though. Its not being used to store a car (my personal bug bear) just personal items and furniture. I don't want to bodge it I just wanted to know what was reasonable to get someone to do the job.
Cotty said:
blackcab said:
If you are leaking in to someone elses garage i would be careful about what you "slop" on there just in case that falls on to someones pride and joy.
The garage owner showed me the interior of their garage so I could see where the water is comming though. Its not being used to store a car (my personal bug bear) just personal items and furniture. I don't want to bodge it I just wanted to know what was reasonable to get someone to do the job.
Cotty said:
blackcab said:
If you are leaking in to someone elses garage i would be careful about what you "slop" on there just in case that falls on to someones pride and joy.
The garage owner showed me the interior of their garage so I could see where the water is comming though. Its not being used to store a car (my personal bug bear) just personal items and furniture. I don't want to bodge it I just wanted to know what was reasonable to get someone to do the job.
silverthorn2151 said:
What I would say is that the creases bulges and splits in asphalt aren't always the cause of leaks. It can be very difficult to trace the actual defect. Abutments are the normal places I would look at when first approaching a problem like this. Make sure flashings are good and so on. Asphalt fails due to the effects of heat causing it to move. That's why you find many asphalt roofs finished with solar reflective paint, white or silver normally. That's intended to reduce heat build up within the asphalt and keep it more stable.
Sorry only got round to replying to your post.Its failed big time. There are cracks that have opened up. Where the metal frame for the glass/metal balustrade (not sure that is the correct word for a metal frame with glass inside) supports meets the balcony, its seperated. In a couple of sections the "skirts" as they called them have lifted (fallen) away from the walls.
Its FUBAR and needs a new covering. I am going to bite the bullet and get the asphelt replaced.
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