Flat roof help!

kzzhar0

Hello
My partner and I have just had an offer accepted on a house which we love. The house has an extension above the garage to extend one of the bedrooms. I have been told that there flat roofs can be s nightmare and with the picture showing air bricks too they think that it could be leaking/have damp. The extension is over 20 years old and I'm wondering whether anyone knows much about these? I know that they're a cheap way of building extensions and now I'm worried it'll be something we have to redo once we move. We've planned to renovate slowly but a new roof isn't something we were planning on doing when there are other parts of the house we want to focus on. Does anyone have an idea of cost of replacing this sort of thing? . Thanks in advance!

kzzhar0

Here isan image

NinjaTune

Wow, that looks ... odd.  Strange that they didn't continue the original roofline if it's a bedroom extension.

Have you looked into how much it would cost to replace the flat roof?  Is there room for negotiation on the price?

ETA:  Just realised you were asking about the cost of replacing the roof, not the extension itself!

KiwiCoop

That is the weirdest looking extension I've ever seen and must devalue the house by a lot more than the cost of a replacement flat roof.  Don't mean to be rude but I would have concerns about buying a house from anyone who thought that was a good idea.

clive0510

I'm surprised they got planning permission to do the roof like that. surely it should of followed the existing roof line.

greatcrested

I'll bet they never got planning consent for that. Too late for enforcement action so no worries on that score but... you want to live in an ugly property like that?!!!

And if they did that, what else did they do...........?

Unless it's already priced to take account of that extension monstrosity, knock £20K off your offer.

kzzhar0

That's actually the side of the property as it's a corner plot so I'll post a picture of the front. I think that the garage roof is quite high and the extension is extending an existing room so maybe they've wanted to keep the height of the roof and so made it flat? 

kzzhar0

here is the 'front' 

Jeepers_Creepers

It's almost certainly as you say - it was the easy way to maintain headroom over as much of the bedroom as possible. 

Personally, I think it's stunning. I'm stunned.

(Only kidding - it ain't that bad, and could be made a feature using cedar cladding or summat, if wanted)

Anyhoo, are flat roofs bad? I hope not - we've just had one on our extension. Also, that roof area will not be large, so the worst case scenario would be a few £k for having it GRP'ed - if that's actually required. Is it?!

Products like ResTec FlexiTec 2020 (wot we had) can even be applied to existing surfaces and will be fully secure. 

Provided the existing roof is in decent order, you should have no concerns. If it isn't, factor in a recovering. 

And that vent brick is likely to vent the old garage roof void - so I'm not immediately concerned about that either; ie it doesn't 'suggest' there's an issue. 

I guess of more concern is whether the garage ceiling meets fire regs now that it has a habitable room above it?

Jeepers_Creepers

"I have been told that there flat roofs can be s nightmare and with the picture showing air bricks too they think that it could be leaking/have damp" - that sounds like laymen/friends talk and not a report from a survey! What does the actual survey say?

FreeBear

Jeepers_Creepers said: Provided the existing roof is in decent order, you should have no concerns. If it isn't, factor in a recovering.

If the roof does need replacing anytime soon, a very good opportunity to add loads more insulation. A flat roof specialist would be able to advise, but I would certainly suggest 150mm+ of Celotex/Kingspan type insulation installed as a "warm roof" rather than packing between the joists with rockwool/fibreglass. Pay attention to the perimeter and ensure any gaps are sealed, and you will lose minimal heat.