Flat roof fire rating hell..

purpleom

Hi,
I'm looking for advice on a problem I don't know how to resolve.
We had a kitchen extension three years ago: an existing 'galley kitchen' one storey extension was expanded with a garden room added and a new much bigger roof. We're now trying to sell the house but it appears we never get building regs final sign off because the building inspector from the district council didn't see any proof of "fire designation rating of flat roofing felt".
We can't find any paperwork from the roofer - we may have thrown it out, not understanding the significance. I've tried to track down the original roofer to supply the paperwork for it, but unfortunately he has not only retired and emigrated but is currently in a foreign prison after a bar fight that turned nasty...! So we're not going to get any help from him. What I have discovered is his name and the roofing supplies store he bought all his kit from.

The neighbour in the other half of our semi-detatched house had the same kitchen extension at the same time and we met in the middle with a party wall. She had a different roofer and hers side has been given building regs. Looks exactly the same as ours...!

At the moment these seem to be my options for getting this fixed:

1) If I can identify the manufacturer of the roofing felt I can send them a sample and ask them to identify it. To do so I'll need to peel some off (and fix back afterwards) and trying to identify the manufacturer's name printed or embossed underneath.

2) I could approach the supplies shop he used and ask them to check their account during the period he worked on the roof and provide proof of what he purchased. Not sure how much weight this will hold with building regs people as it doesn't actually prove that's what he used for our roof.

3) Get the entire roof (36 sq m) done again :-O This will be a few thousand quid, and all for the lack of a piece of paper!


Can anyone advise - are there any alternatives, or something I'm missing?

Yours in desperation!

angel_of_dartford

Might be worth asking to see your neighbours roofing certificate, once you know what one looks like, AND the company which did yours no longer exists...

Microsoft Word could be your friend !

System

Find out the manufacturer of the felt, see if they have a fire rated product and confirm with building control that is what's on there...
You wouldn't have to redo the entire roof as its only within a certain distance to boundary that needs to be fire rated, you could also ask if a ballast of gravel or something might be acceptable to building control for spread of fire protection...

jbainbridge

purpleom wrote: »

Hi,
I've tried to track down the original roofer to supply the paperwork for it, but unfortunately he has not only retired and emigrated but is currently in a foreign prison after a bar fight that turned nasty...!

That's unlucky!