Render guidance needed

myamyamoo

I'm hoping someone can help as this is starting to bother me. I live in a mid terraced house that drops down, so there is render between each of the houses. The houses in the row all look stepped down if that makes sense.
Anyway some of the render has come of from my side. Who would I need to contact to fix this a builder or roofer? Secondly I've noticed that lying on next doors guttering is a tile slate, not from mine (different tiles) could this have been caused by the render coming away and would I be liable if it was to fall and damage or injury was sustained?.
Many thanks for any replies.

Davesnave

I puzzled for a while over your description.

To save others doing the same, I think you mean your terrace of houses is on a slope and stepped, with each exposed gable end wall above the lower neighbour's roof rendered.

I don't think it's possible for any of us here to assess what damage the failing render might do, or how the legal situation would play out if the neighbour's tile fell and caused injury/damage.



Surely, you should be talking to the neighbour first as a matter of urgency, since to fix the render you'll need access to their roof. If their tiles are dodgy, it might be a good idea for both of you to work together and share costs. particularly if scaffolding is required.


As to who should do the work....I'll leave that to others.

myamyamoo

Thank you for your reply. Yes your description of the house is correct. Unfortunately my neighbour is not very approachable and has caused a lot of problems in the street. The neighbour in question was eventually cautioned by police.
I assume I should just contact a rendering company ? And take it from there. Their roof is not in a good state, lots of missing or cracked tiles and they are the type to escalate the situation and expect compensation.
As always any help is gratefully received.

Fire_Fox

I misread the title as "Reindeer Guidance" yesterday.

And again today. :rotfl:

myamyamoo

If autocorrect had it's way it would have said reindeer as opposed to render:rotfl:

cyclonebri1

Your home insurance covers public liability so you should be ok, however it gets a little more complicated at times.
You cannot be seen as being negligent if it's a problem you didn't know about or it hadn't happened before. Being negligent would be if a slate had fallen once and you failed to fix the problem before it happened again.
You have to ask yourself in this this case.

Regarding the render, I've seen so many failed render coatings that you begin to wonder if it's a black art. There is a company near me that specialise in all types of render coating, everyone in the know uses them so that's my advice, use someone who knows what they are doing with wall finishing, most roofer with all respect probably don't.
I asked the guys that did my bungalow why they could get pebbledash to stay on and yet others couldn't, the reply was;

"Oh that's simple, we put cement in our mix", I get what they were saying.;)

London28UK

Render is tricky to do, most people dont know what is good practice, ie if a builder asked you if you wanted a scratch coat what would you say ? A cement render can be useful, ive just stripped an old internal bathroom back to brick and we did a scratch coat and a top coat with an additive to bond the old bricks together and keep out the damp onto which we have bonded insulated plaster board. For some external renders the render needs to breath to allow the bricks below to dry out. Get three quotes from local firms who specialise in render. Also ask your neighbours if you see them using a builder and getting work done. The problem with a bad render job, it will not become apparent its a bad job for a year or two later when it cracks.