Advice

Let us present how we renovated the flat roof in our company headquarters in Sodražica, Slovenia. Already its location guarantees that it has been exposed to extreme weather conditions – freezing winters as well as scorching hot summers.

An expert technical team and a green roofs specialist joined in this project to help with the design phase of flat roof renovation in detail. Part of the problematic flat roof area was built as a terrace, and the other part as a green roof. Soon after its improper construction and sloppy detail execution in 2006, the roof started to leak and we were faced with many problems.

ANALYSIS OF THE PROBLEM

We started by examining the roof’s condition and searched for problematic areas and damaged waterproofing. Quickly, we located some waterproofing damage on the green part of the flat roof that we believed to be the main cause of the leaking, but discovered later on that, unfortunately, there was a number of other damaged areas causing the leaking.

PROBLEMS DUE TO LEAKING

The harsh reality of our problems became more clear when we examined the walls in the space below the roof and found dark spots and mold. Also, due to excessive moisture, plaster was falling off the walls and the ceiling.

RENOVATION

An old saying tells that the best roof is a slanted roof. But the general belief in the inferiour quality of flat roofs was not due to bad materials and wrong solutions. Usually, flat roofs leaked because of improper construction and faulty treatment of details.

Check out how we renovated our flat roof – see why we chose a specific flat roof system and the sequence of respective roof layers. Special attention was given to details – how the roof parapet wall meets the roof and the terrace, drain installation details, etc.

We also highlighted the most important factors to be observed for achieving a durable roof, when renovation.