Cost for rebedding ridge and hip tiles??

Olive3

Morning all, 
We are in the process of buying a 1930's semi detached house, and have just had the full building survey back. Most of the recommendations were minor things - but the surveyor has said that the ridge and hip pantiles need rebedding as there is evidence of damp in the roof timbers and felt. We are trying to get 2/3 quotes, but I thought I would ask here to see if anyone has had this type of work done, and could give an estimate of costs? We have no idea, so don't know if we need to renegotiate the purchase price!
Many thanks 

rob7475

If they all need to come off and be re-done. You're probably looking at two days labour for a roofer - maybe £4-500 depending on where you are in the country. If you can find a recommended roofer, get them to have a look - I'd be surprised if they all need doing.

neilmcl

rob7475 said:

If they all need to come off and be re-done. You're probably looking at two days labour for a roofer - maybe £4-500 depending on where you are in the country. If you can find a recommended roofer, get them to have a look - I'd be surprised if they all need doing.

If the job requires scaffolding, and tbh it's very likely to do so then you could probably add a grand to that, at least.

Olive3

Thanks Rob7475 and Neilmcl
We've just had a quote, we have been told that the roof looks like it hasn't had any maintenance for at least 40 years so there is no point just doing the ridge, the whole thing should be replaced. At a cost of £8k to £9k (including scaffolding). We are getting some more quotes! 

George_Michael

If you do go ahead and buy the property and get the roof replaced, you should also budget for getting the attic insulation brought up to current standards (270mm minimum thickness). 
This is because it's a requirement that when replacing more than 25% of the roof you need building regulations approval and the insulation is a major part of this.

Replacing or topping up the insulation isn't too difficult if you are able to do it yourself but if not, you would have to get someone to do it for you.

FreeBear

George_Michael said: If you do go ahead and buy the property and get the roof replaced, you should also budget for getting the attic insulation brought up to current standards (270mm minimum thickness).

And whilst the roof is off, an ideal opportunity to get the loft space boarded out (after adding the insulation). Getting large sheets of chipboard up there will be a lot easier without tiles & battens getting in the way.

Side note - Had a ballpark quote of £4-5K to have my 1920s semi re-roofed. Worth getting a couple more quotes.

Mickey666

George_Michael said:

If you do go ahead and buy the property and get the roof replaced, you should also budget for getting the attic insulation brought up to current standards (270mm minimum thickness). 
This is because it's a requirement that when replacing more than 25% of the roof you need building regulations approval and the insulation is a major part of this.

Replacing or topping up the insulation isn't too difficult if you are able to do it yourself but if not, you would have to get someone to do it for you.

Yes, I've heard that before (and am not doubting it), same as when replastering more than 25% of a room I believe.

Thing is, I've never really understood how this is enforceable in practice or detectable when the work is finished.  OK, roof work is generally visible to neighbours but what constitutes 'replacing' 25% of the roof?  Lifting tiles, for example to replace battens, and then relaying the same tiles is not really 'replacement' it is?  It's basic maintenance, as is re-bedding the ridge tiles.  And any future survey will not be able to detect the work anyway so the issue of 'missing' building regs will never come up.

Same as completely replastering a room - no one's going to notice, a future house survey won't detect it once decorated so no issues with building regs.

Not that improving the insulation in the attic isn't a good idea of course because it is, I just don't think it needs to involve building control.

As for the cost of re-bedding ridge tiles, I'd agree with the above comment about scaffolding being the wild card in this respect.  Full roof-level scaffolding around the entire roof will be expensive.  However, when I had ridge tiles re-bedded by my local go-to brickie, he was happy to just use a roof ladder to get onto the roof and sit astride the ridge while his assistant was up and down the ladder with buckets of new mortar and taking away the bits of the old cracked and loose mortar.  He started at one end and just shuffled his way backwards along the ridge re-bedding each ridge tile as he went.  It only took him a couple of days.  I can't remember the exact cost, but it was probably around £500. 

I guess that being self-employed he could do such a thing but a company almost certainly couldn't send one of their employees to do the job in the same way under HSE legislation and would require full scaffolding. 

George_Michael

Mickey666 said:

Not that improving the insulation in the attic isn't a good idea of course because it is, I just don't think it needs to involve building control.

Legally you do have to involve building control if more than 25% of the roofing has been replaced or repaired and giving the correct advice is one thing that should be essential on forums such as this.
Even if the tiles had been removed then the same ones refitted, if this was done for the purpose of a repair then you still require approval and the work needs to be signed off at the end.
Whether or not someone decides to ignore the building control aspect is up to them but I think they should at least be given the information to enable them to make an informed choice.

Mickey666

George_Michael said:

Mickey666 said:

Not that improving the insulation in the attic isn't a good idea of course because it is, I just don't think it needs to involve building control.

Legally you do have to involve building control if more than 25% of the roofing has been replaced or repaired and giving the correct advice is one thing that should be essential on forums such as this.
Even if the tiles had been removed then the same ones refitted, if this was done for the purpose of a repair then you still require approval and the work needs to be signed off at the end.
Whether or not someone decides to ignore the building control aspect is up to them but I think they should at least be given the information to enable them to make an informed choice.

Fair point.  There's the strict by-the-book advice and then there's the pragmatic, in practice advice.

So by-the-book, anyone who improves their attic insulation by adding additional insulation covering more than 25% of the area MUST LEGALLY get building control certification to certify the new insulation meets the prevailing building regulations.

Fine, but how many people do you think actually do that when B&Q have a rockwool promotion and they buy a few more rolls for their attic, covering more than 25% but not up to the latest regs?   
In practice, no one will ever know and lack of building regs for something that no one knows about is never going to be a problem is it?  If the house is subsequently sold, all that a surveyor will note is that the attic insulation could be improved but lack of a building regs certificate will never even be mentioned.

I agree with you that readers should be given ALL the information and implications in order to make an informed choice.

George_Michael

Mickey666 said:

Fair point.  There's the strict by-the-book advice and then there's the pragmatic, in practice advice.

So by-the-book, anyone who improves their attic insulation by adding additional insulation covering more than 25% of the area MUST LEGALLY get building control certification to certify the new insulation meets the prevailing building regulations.

I don't think that's the case as it's the roofing itself that determines the BR approval and not the insulation in the attic.
If you are simply replacing or topping up your insulation then building regulation approval doesn't need to be obtained.
If however you are doing the insulation as part of a bigger job that also involves more than 25% of the roof covering, then you need the approval.
Building Regulations: Loft Insulation | Insulation | Planning Portal

Olive3

Thanks all, this is incredibly helpful. The survey picked up that the insulation is only 100mm, so we were planning on boosting that to 300mm anyway. We have arranged for some more quotes, and flagged to the vendors the work that needs doing - they were not surprised as they have been there a long time, and not done anything with the roof. We still want the house, it's in the perfect location and it's our long term home. Just need an accurate quote so we can negotiate!