Roofing advice

mallada · 7 July 2017 at 5:42PM

We recently had a homebuyers report on our house which states the roof has come to the end of its life, daylight can be seen from the attic, the torching (lime mortar) is crumbling and some of the slates have slipped due to the nails rotting & more slates are likely to slip.

Do we need to be looking to remove the roof, batten and put a membrane in place along with replacing a number of tiles? How important is the membrane? Is it not sufficient to repair slipped/broken tiles? If it's just a case of sorting tiles why would they say it is end of life?

Thanks in advance,
Mallada

tacpot12 · 7 July 2017 at 6:25PM

The membrane is vital and dirt cheap compared to the cost of labour, new slates and scaffolding.

When the nails start to rot, the slates usually have more life left in them, but the battens are usually weak, so if new nails are used to fix the old slates back on the battens can be broken easily. The cost of new battens is cheaper than the time it will take the roofer to work so carefully that no battens are broken. It's a false economy not to replace the battens. And if you are lifting the battens it a no brainer to replace the membrane with a modern alternative.

lauraland · 7 July 2017 at 6:29PM

Dont worry - I had something similar on the survey for the home I purchased a few years ago. It is a rosemary red roof, no felt and quite a few slipped/missing tiles.Yes there were a few areas of pinhole daylight showing but there were no leaks at all, and all the battons were in remarkably good condition for a 100 year old roof.

Have a good look yourself (inside and outside), and contact a good,honest local roofer for advice. Thats what I did - we went ahead and renovated the roof by replacing missing tiles and it looks as good as new. Yes the roof will need re-tiled, felted and battoned at some point in the future, as nothing lasts for ever, but the renovation has extended its life by a good 15-20 years, which gives us ample time to put money away.

The surveyor will always report the worst case scenario to cover their backs so it is wise to do a bit of investigating yourself. As you're selling though, this will be used as a bargaining tool for potential buyers so be prepared for some negotiating or even get a few quotes in to reassure nervous buyers.

Roofing advice

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free