Attaching railings to EPDM covered roof

[Gavin99]

Hello,

I've had two firms round to give me a quote for supply and fit railings to a couple of first floor flat roofs that are covered by EPDM. I'm sure they quoted me for gold plating rather than galvanising! but both of them are stumped as to how to fix to the deck. Looks like I won't be going with either of them!

At the front of the house the roof is osb on joists, at the rear wbp ply on joists. The deck overhangs by around a metre at the rear. Whilst it is securely anchored there is a tiny bit of bounce so I may put 3 columns underneath just to stop that (one at either corner and one in the centre). The underside of the overhang is going to be clad with upvc boards.

Currently I'm going to flag over both using the spacers you can see in the photo, though possibly I may bed them on mortar so I can use a random flag pattern. The mortar could be upto 50mm thick, any thicker and the surface of the flags may be too close to the dpc & door threshold.

The guy who did the front roof said just screw the railing plates through the epdm & use a bit of silicone. The last thing I want to do is puncture the membrane and bodge it up with silicone! Unless of course that is the way the pro's actually do it.

I'd be grateful for any suggestions as to how to fix the railings front and back roofs.

Front of house

Front of house

• Gavin99
• 10 Mar 2011
• 1

Rear of house views

Rear of house

• Gavin99
• 10 Mar 2011
• 1

Rear of house

• Gavin99
• 10 Mar 2011
• 1

Rear of house

• Gavin99
• 10 Mar 2011
• 1

Many thanks.

 

[Mw Roofline]

EPDM isn't really suited for anything bolted and screwed to it as once it's pierced water finds a way.

It would be better for brackets to be made fixed to the wall so it bends round the gutter then upwards. Otherwise you need to put the posts on cut squares of EPDM formflash and then use more formflash to flash from the floor all around the post. You can hide this with your slabs.

Would Gallows brackets look better than colums?

 

[htgeng]

Would Gallows brackets look better than colums?

Looks heck of a cantilevered section. If having a party up there Id warn people not to congregate at that end or else... whooops!

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Handrails on flat roofs are a nightmare to detail, you'll need a structural engineer to design the connectopn and have the roof strengthened accordingly. To do this kind of thing without SE involvement is plain stupid. I know it because I've designed a few flat roof's with handrails before.

Frankly if you went for a handrail system that penetrated the epdm the waterproofing is the least of your worries and is fairly easy to overcome anyway.

You need Planning Permission too BTW.

 

[Gavin99]

Thanks everyone. They are just replacements of the previously rotten roofs/railings so no planning permission issues (or I'm in trouble if there are!). Building control is happy with the cantilever though I like the belt and braces approach of adding some columns.

The old railing posts were done by the last person to own the house many years ago. They were something like 1" square section tube welded to 9" square plates. The plates were screwed to the deck and flashed over with felt etc. Water got in over time and rotted the deck so I'd like to avoid that happening again.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Planning and structural issues aside. Fixing to the wall faces is always preferred but if constructed correctly penetrations should not make a competent roofer nervous
http://www.google.co.uk/images?hl=e...e=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=859&bih=546

Thousands of EPDM roofs have penetrations for ducts, conduits, vent pipes, fall arrest systems etc etc and they don't leak.