Snow on roof melted through roof and ceiling!

waterwatereverywhere

Hi,

We spent Xmas at a relatives house and it seems like the weight and amount of snow stuck on their roof during the really cold spell has melted slowly through the roof and on to the ceiling below. Just wondering if this will have caused permanent serious damage to the roof/felt and start letting rainwater in? What should they do about it and would they be covered by house insurance if works are needed which prove expensive?

Think the ceiling is plasterboard and there are now several brown water stain marks pretty much in 3 lines along the ceiling.

I went up into the loft to have a look, there are ordinary tiles on the roof and then a line of some sort of black underfelt/lining beneath them which I could just see pulling back the sodden furry insulation stuff which is up at the rafters(?), roof side.

It seems that at the joints of this underfelt, where one layer overlaps the another, the snow was melting through this gap/overlay, through the furry loft insulation at the rafters (roof side), dripping down through the insulation in the floor joists and then through on to the ceiling below.

It was happening pretty much all over the loft but part of the area is boarded with chipboard and this seems to have soaked up the drips in places so it hasn't gone through to the ceiling beneath, it's only in the places with no loft boarding that it has gone right through to the ceiling below.

Do they just wait for heavy rain and monitor to see if the roof has been damaged and lets rain water in? Many thx for any advice on this.

duchy

I'd be calling my insurance company for advice ......and also to make sure they have an imedidate notification of the issue so they can't say later "You should have notified us when the problem first occurred". Never give an insurance company wriggle room !!

ormus

i wouldnt bother calling them at all.
they will see it as a maintenance problem.
also your excess (and next years rise in premiums), makes it better to get the job done yourself.

jammy_dodger

hi Op
we have this problem with the slow snow melt and are not affected by rain we just let it dry out again however yours sounds a bit worse as its causing patches on the ceiling ? i would still wait and see whats what when snow melt has gone and see if water gets in when it rains then have roof looked at if necessary

jammy_dodger

hi Op
we have this problem with the slow snow melt and are not affected by rain we just let it dry out again however yours sounds a bit worse as its causing patches on the ceiling ? i would still wait and see whats what when snow melt has gone and see if water gets in when it rains then have roof looked at if necessary

just my thoughts at least you are nit alon with this problem hth

waterwatereverywhere

Hi

Many thanks for the replies. As suggested will recommend that they monitor when there is heavy rain and see if the snow incident has caused it to leak.

Fully appreciate what was said about a claim affecting no claims in the future and pushing up premiums and also the excess, but they are on a low income and tend to think that if a roof repair is needed it will no doubt be so costly as to far exceed the excess and likely increase in premium.

Re the reply saying the insurance are likely to see it as a "maintenance issue", please can you say why you think this is the case? There was no problem with the roof before and it was definitely the weight of the snow sitting up there for so long that caused the problem in the first place.

Fingers firmly crossed it won't be an ongoing problem but they just don't know at the moment.

macman

Of course it's a maintenance issue. If the defective area is small then 'normal' rain may not penetrate enough to be noticeable, but with snow sitting on it it has gradually melted and made it's way through. And frost may have caused further damage to the covering. The weather has simply accelerated the rate of decay and the amount of water that can ingress.
The leak was almost certainly there before, but not constant enough to soak through and stain the plasterboard.
You have zero chance of your buildings insurance paying out for this, as ormus already advised.

phill99

Its unlikely that they will pay out got the repairs to the roof. Insurance covers the consequences of a leak, not the leak itself. Therefore they will cover any residual damage to the ceiling, walls etc as well as fixtures and fittings.

fiddiwebb

Is it the edges of the ceiling that the patches are showing or all over?

We have had a problem with ice dams in the guttering, ice builds up in the gutters and bridges across to the roofing slates which causes water to flow back into the house, normally you find water coming in above window casements but also can travel within barge boards if there is a slight slope and can collect in the corners of the house.