Rough cost of roof bracing/straps?

davido140

Probably not a DIY job (certainly not for me anyway)

I'm very close to buying a house which had the issues about reinforcement needed for the roof raised in the survey.

Can anybody give me a really rough idea how much the stuff detailed below is likely to cost, time is tight so I cant really be getting people in for quotes.

Thanks in advance.

Dave


Although constructed in accordance with the practices used at the time of original erection, it is now considered desirable to provide additional stability by means of diagonal timber bracing struts and metal lateral restraint ties.
The bracings should take the form of 100mm by 26mm pieces of timber laid diagonally from the ridge to the eaves and spanning seven trusses from either gable and twice nailed to the underside of the rafters of every truss. Additional horizontal timbers should be fixed at right angles to the ceiling joists, at an angle of not less than 30 degrees to the perimeter walls. These should run between the party walls and be twice nailed to every ceiling joist. Additional horizontal binders of 100mm by 25mm need to be provided twice nailed to each rafter and again run in between the party walls immediately above the sloping lower angle struts on each side of the roof.
Galvanised metal straps are "L" shaped pieces of metal. The short section of the strap is fixed to the party wall and the long section of the strap is fixed over at least three rafter and joist sections of trusses. The bracing and strapping work should be carried out now.

iamcornholio

First you should confirm with that surveyor if the roof structure is currently in any distress. If the roof was built to previous standards, and it is OK now after all this time, then there is no point in doing anything to it. He seems to be doing doing some !!!! covering, and not giving you full advice

Also, that surveyor is mad to specify nailing to ceiling joists - it will crack your plaster. Screws should be used.

If you can get a chippie in to do this as a foreigner or Saturday job, then you are looking at about £300. A company will probably charge £500 -700

If the roof is otherwise OK, I'd put this on the wishlist for the medium to longer term of things to do

Ruski

Biggest issue will be getting 4.8m lengths of timber up and into the loftspace!
It's a common paragraph to find in surveys and IMHO nothing to worry about - if it were then it would have been raised as a specific point, rather than a 'covering my !!!' paragraph...

mysk_girl

You don't have to get 4.8m lengths up, you can lap them.

mysk_girl

And it can be a DIY job, I recommended it to a friend when I surveyed their house and it took them a weekend, but was relatively easy once I had explained what had to go where. It's to stop the trusses 'racking' (falling over sideways). A sure sign of movement already having taken place is taut or torn sarking (fabric between trusses), although if this was evident I would have expected the surveyor to notice!

teneighty

As others have said the timber bracing can be quite a simple DIY job.
The metal straps are more difficult and I think the original surveyor may have over simplified things. The straps are usually installed where the roof, ceiling and/or first floor run parallel to a gable wall and not the party wall as stated. They are designed to prevent the gable wall getting sucked out in high winds so the straps need to pass through the wall and hook into the cavity. So very difficult to retro fit, some people screw them to the inside of the wall but to be honest a few screws would not be enough in my opinion. However there must be thousands of houses up and down the country that don't have these lateral restraint straps or they are not installed correctly so unless the house is in a very exposed position I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it.

davido140

Fantastic, thanks all very much for the advice! :beer:

The paragraph above was only a snippet of a very long section about the roof, bit more info, there has been some evidence of movement and the risk the surveyor was concerned about was a "domino" effect of roofs toppling over if one in the terrace went, apparently there are well documented cases of this happening.

As I am the unluckiest man on the face of the planet with any major purchase I think I'll probably get it done ASAP after moving in (if it all goes ahead) knowing my luck we'll have 6 feet of snow and the lot will fall down!

Good point about the straps, I did have a look and thought they needed to go through the party walls rather than just be attached to them. Likewise with the nails vs screws.

Thanks again for the assistance.

Dave

Dry_Rot

This could be done DIY if you are diligent. However, a specialist may be a better bet because they will provide a detailed quotation and make sure that the complete work is exacly what was asked for.

These issues can come back and haunt you later if they are done 'on the side' . When you come to sell the house one day, you may find you have to have it done again, if there's no credable paper-chase with reciepts and such.

The alternative is to ask the surveyor to inspect and certify the completed installation so that you can get a letter from him, confirming the work meets the necessery standards.

As for getting a joiner to do this as a foreghner - that is illegal of course and has risks, if say he causes damage which he is not insured to put right.

Try the Property Care Association web site and look for contractors who specialise in Structural repair in your area. They have a nice little widget for searching for them and most will quote for free.

http://www.property-care.org/

davido140

Agreed, specialist for definite, I want everything with certificates/guarantees. etc.

For the purposes of the ball park figure I'm going to budget £1000, it will be enough to cover a "typical" job, plus some contingency and VAT.

27col

Well, I'm pretty sure that I would not be spending £1000 for someone to do a job that is quite an easy DIY fix. Just as a matter of interest, what is the certificate going to say. Oh! I know, "This is to certify that diagonal braces have been nailed to the inside of the roof trusses." That's a lot of money for very little.

Dry_Rot

Nice point 27col and I agree to an extent. it is fairly straighforward work..But once it's done, who says it done right? A surveyor has picked up a structural problem. This is the rub - the problem must be put right.

When the house is sold (or re-mortgaged) the seller will be asked to fill in a form which specificaly asks about any previous structural issues.

If he says well, there was a probem, but my mate fixed it on Sunday, the buyer's solicitor will ask for a specific survey to confirm that the work is correct. It may be, but that survey will cost money and there's no guarantee that the surveyor will not find fault.

In practise, this is one of those situations where you are better off using a specialist. Not because it can't be done by you or another, but because it puts the probem to bed for good. This makes financial sense.

1000 is not that much for the piece of mind that it will bring - compared to say 400/500 for a cheap fix that may not fix the issue and may cause delays, doubts and costs later.