Leaking Roof. Advice needed!

vertical_fool

Now where do I start.

8 years ago we ( my mum) had a new roof, at the time the roofers also wanted to do next doors as this was knackered but they declined.

2-3 years ago water came in through the back bedroom ceiling, after investigating in the loft my brother reckoned "it was because there was too much stuff in there and that air could not circulate", after moving stuff out of the way the problem seemed to go away, that is it appeared to dry out in the bedroom with just the damage being left. This was left until a week or so ago.

Also during this time damp was appearing in the front bedroom (at the top of the wall,corner of the ceiling), again the ignorance is bliss solution was used.

Now two weeks ago the insurance were called ( by my mother) because the shower had leaked into the living room. The inspector said he would fix (i.e. plaster and paint) the living room ceiling and the back bedroom ceiling/wall and also the kitchen ceiling where I had not contained the water when I was repairing the ball !!!! in the toilet.

The plasterer came to plaster on monday but when he started to do rip the plaster of the back bedroom ceiling it was soaked, the joist was wet, the wood could be "peeled" off, he said it would be stupid to plaster as it wouldn`t last long, that the roof/leak needed to be fixed first. By the way when we had moved the wardrobe out of the way it did look worse than appeared.

Overnight there was rain and the rain was dripping through the temporary board the plasterer put up.

So today we had roofers come to have a look and give us a quote. Now it appears that there should be a gutter of some description (forgotten the word) between the two roofs to direct the water out. Originally the two had just been mortared together although our thick tiles against there thin knackered tiles " would propably not hold very well". This mortared joint woulh have formed a seal but apparently not a suitable long term one. After looking in the loft more thoroughly with a decent light we can also see that the joists at the front of the house are also wet.

It also appears that the roof doesn`t go far enough over the neighbours side of the roof. I was told it should be either a tiles width over or a tile and a half over but it appears to finish almost flush with the middle of the roofs.

(It may not even go over the middle of the walls, if you take the garden fence and use that as the middle then the roof does go over half way, but the fence is not in the middle, it is more over our side, i.e. it is taking a small amount of our land.)

Now the original builder that was doing all the work on the house ( it was an old delapidated house, with over a 100% extension) was an uncle ( I`ve tried to contact him, at the moment he is working for two weeks in Spain) although I`ve now been informed that he contracted out the roofing job ( I don`t know who to).

Now I don`t think the insurance will pay out to fix the roof aswell ( this is what they told my mum this morning). Apparently when the inspector came round my mum said that the roof had been fixed (refering to my brother moving stuff out of the way as this appeared to solve the problem).

So where do we stand, is the original roofer responsible for not doing a suitable job?

Is the Uncle responsible as he was basically running everything?

Are we responsible?

Should the insurance pay?

Please HELP!!!

FirstClassMale

The same thing happened to us just before Christmas, the insurer only pays for the damage not the cause. Its a shame that it was a family member involved as you cant get too agro with them but it is definately worth getting it all fixed before the insurance lot come back as they do an excellent job and their work is guaranteed by the insurer.

vertical_fool

Just bumping this up in the hope of getting replies. Please.

plumb1_2

The new roof would have had to be joined in the middle, you cant start taking someones roof off just to make yours more water tight.
When they re-newed the roof they should have installed a Secrect Gutter, it is a fibreglass strip(300-400mm wide) that fits between both roofs, from the ridge down to the gutter line, front and back, to allow the different types of roofs to be linked.
Both roofs will have to be stripped back and a gutter installed.

i would put the problem with your Uncle, he was in charge of the job

vertical_fool

Thanks plumb1, at the moment I`m trying to find out who the roofers were from my uncle who`s working in Spain for a couple of weeks.

I`m hoping that there still in business and will repair as I don`t think it is suitable for its purpose. What do you think?

plumb1_2

vertical_fool wrote:

Thanks plumb1, at the moment I`m trying to find out who the roofers were from my uncle who`s working in Spain for a couple of weeks.

I`m hoping that there still in business and will repair as I don`t think it is suitable for its purpose. What do you think?

Why have the same cowboys back on site, who botched the job with mortor?
It won't be a cheap job to recify the roof.
IMO it is down to your Uncle( El Sid) to sort this problem out.

vertical_fool

Thanks plumb1, I am beginning to see that my uncle as a sort of unofficial project manager holds the responsibility although it will be difficult to apply much pressure as he is family. Hopefully will get to speak to him soon thoygh maybe not until he is back in GB. I think we would have the original roofers back to finish the job if it didn`t cost us anything.

Do you think that the bad condition of the neighbours roof could be a valid reason for the methods they used. Apparently nextdoors tiles are rosemary`s that are very fragile.