Dispute with builder regarding roof slates

lstar337

thebaronn wrote: »

Remove spaces in the following URLs to see photos of the roof:-

https://postimg.org/image/9qlkd11wn/
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https://postimg.org/image/tdpwf55mf/
https://postimg.org/image/p2ahhvdjr/
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https://postimg.org/image/7u3ht6yaf/
https://postimg.org/image/fiy33h3pd/
https://postimg.org/image/4kco3j5ep/
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Hoof_Hearted

When I read the first post, I though you were being fussy. Now I have seen the pictures, it is definitely not acceptable. If the builder thinks it is, he is a cowboy. Could you get a surveyor to check the roof and give an independent report?

Furts

lstar337 wrote: »

Spaces removed.

I am with teneighty - a shocking job that needs stripping back and doing again. There is nothing holding the ridge tiles on. I had given the benefit of the doubt earlier and wondered if it was a dry ridge system, but could see no fixings. I could not believe it could ever be a wet ridge, but it is!

The elevation photo is also worrying - those sheets of OSB board with strips over the joints and some form of Flashband sealing bodged around the top.

Back to OP - who is inspecting this work, is it you, or somebody else, and on what regime of site visits?

If you need to fire back into the builder, I assume you are having Building Control inspections, so I suggest they could be a useful ally here.

Furts

dermonte wrote: »

I hate builders like that. They continue doing the job even they know its wrong until customer points out. Stop working when you notice your mistake, then inform customer and correct without even asking if customer would acceot it. All of us working here to pay for those jobs to be done properly. Money doesnt grow on trees!!

OK, but all consumers could seek guidance, and assistance, to inspect and minimise problems. They choose not to, thinking it is wonderful to save money and seek the cheapest drawings, the cheapest procedures, no specification, no working drawings, and no technical standards. Then problems arise, and posts appear on Forums.

Builders are happy to take advantage of consumers who adopt this mindset. This is wrong but we live in a brutal world, so who can expect anything other than this.

cyclonebri1

Furts wrote: »

Looking at the battens, (they appear to be only pieces of varying timber, not treated, not finishing on a rafter and not staggered joints), I wonder about the competence of any of the roofing works.

Look at the top course on the RHS - it is not properly nailed to a suitable batten beneath.

I cannot see how the ridge is fixed -I wonder if it is mortared in place but there is not much room for this to be so.

Are there flashing kits for the roof lights? How are the cut slates fixed around them?

Of course the top courses do not match, but this is a trivial detail when the it the roof may need to be stripped off and redone.

Back to OP here - you have inspected the work as it has progressed. Are you happy everything is OK?

BUT, you have to accept it seems to be nailed into something?

Not all roofs are totally symmetrical, the tiles to the RHS finish longer and may have has extra support laths installed.

teneighty

With a bit of thought and planning the roofer could have adjusted the gauge and lap of the slates to get a much more even coursing losing any odd course in the hidden eaves course by the tapered box gutter.

The whole roof just screams cowboy who didn't really know what they were doing or just didn't care.

cyclonebri1

teneighty wrote: »

With a bit of thought and planning the roofer could have adjusted the gauge and lap of the slates to get a much more even coursing losing any odd course in the hidden eaves course by the tapered box gutter.

The whole roof just screams cowboy who didn't really know what they were doing or just didn't care.

Wrong again, look at the roof both to the left and right, the right side needs a totally different approach, angle and pitch.

Cowboys?, no, just needed a builder with nous?

teneighty

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

Wrong again, look at the roof both to the left and right, the right side needs a totally different approach, angle and pitch.

Cowboys?, no, just needed a builder with nous?

Are you saying the pitch is asymmetric? I'm not seeing that.
Viewed from the rear the left roof slope is just longer than the right as you would expect with the tapered box gutter on the right.

Furts

cyclonebri1 wrote: »

BUT, you have to accept it seems to be nailed into something?

Not all roofs are totally symmetrical, the tiles to the RHS finish longer and may have has extra support laths installed.

Come on Bri, you are testing me here and trying to get me to bite. You know, and I know, it is a fundamental of building for a tile to be fixed into a batten and that batten goes above the membrane.

I am pointing out there is no batten above the membrane and it is anyone's guess if the slates have any real fixing. It also appears the slates are nailed through the membrane which shouts cowboy roofing.

But fair play to you, you got me to bite!

shaun_from_Africa

Furts wrote: »

I am pointing out there is no batten above the membrane and it is anyone's guess if the slates have any real fixing. It also appears the slates are nailed through the membrane which shouts cowboy roofing.

I thought exactly the same when I saw this picture:

It appears that the fixing nails are either simply sitting between two battens and haven't gone into anything (apart from the slate) or depending on the length of them, they have gone straight through the membrane.
One scenario may lead to lost slates, the other to lost slates and a leak through the roof.