House requires new roof.. thoughts please!

GDB2222

Okay, you've had a few opinions above, from people who have not seen your house, saying that your surveyor is a total idiot, just covering his backside. Against that, you've got the opinion of a professional, whom you have paid to look over your building and advise you. Which are you going to trust, I wonder?

Clearly, you can keep repairing the existing roof, but your surveyor is saying that it needs replacing pretty soon. That's going to cost £10-20k (in London), but at the end of it you will have a brand new roof, good for at least another 50 years. I'd ask for say £10k off the agreed price. 

I'd also keep a keen eye out to see whether prices nose-dive after the stamp duty holiday ends.

DVN999

Thanks for the replies all, lots of food for thought... 

In the same boat as you, PurpleButterfly, as really don’t want to lose the house as not seen anything like it.

As for our initial thoughts on the condition, yes, it looks old and we had already identified that when we made the offer - wouldn’t expect anything else from a house of that age. 

I think the full report is needed to get the exact wording and then can see what you all think; will also try and book a roofing estimate in the meantime

Irishpearce26

GDB2222 said:

Okay, you've had a few opinions above, from people who have not seen your house, saying that your surveyor is a total idiot, just covering his backside. Against that, you've got the opinion of a professional, whom you have paid to look over your building and advise you. Which are you going to trust, I wonder?

Clearly, you can keep repairing the existing roof, but your surveyor is saying that it needs replacing pretty soon. That's going to cost £10-20k (in London), but at the end of it you will have a brand new roof, good for at least another 50 years. I'd ask for say £10k off the agreed price. 

I'd also keep a keen eye out to see whether prices nose-dive after the stamp duty holiday ends.

I guess some of the comments are from other posters who have seen threads from a similar situation were the surveyor condemned the roof at a cost of around £15-20K. Buyer got a roof specialist in who stated roof was ok and needed certain works at a cost of around £3k.

If the surveyor is stating that the roof needs replaced in the next 5-10 years then there is no way the OP can ask for the vendors to stump up that much cash, what if the OP sells up in 4 years time not having done anything? Its like paying for something that may or may never happen. Hence the need for a roof specialist to determine what exactly is wrong with the roof.

GDB2222

I’ve been in that boat previously. Tiles keep slipping, because the nibs are worn out and the nails have long since rusted away. So, we had the choice of continuing to repair the roof or getting it all replaced in one go. It never quite got to the stage where we had no choice, so we kept on spending money on it In fairly big dribs and drabs. 

The people who bought from us did a big loft extension and replaced the roof at the same time.

If you take into account that our buyers priced in a new roof when they made their offer, plus the money we spent on it, we might have done better to replace the roof ourselves earlier on.

MysteryMe

GDB2222 said:

Okay, you've had a few opinions above, from people who have not seen your house, saying that your surveyor is a total idiot, just covering his backside. Against that, you've got the opinion of a professional, whom you have paid to look over your building and advise you. Which are you going to trust, I wonder?

Clearly, you can keep repairing the existing roof, but your surveyor is saying that it needs replacing pretty soon. That's going to cost £10-20k (in London), but at the end of it you will have a brand new roof, good for at least another 50 years. I'd ask for say £10k off the agreed price. 

I'd also keep a keen eye out to see whether prices nose-dive after the stamp duty holiday ends.

I wouldn't trust someone who claims things that are false for a start, no one has called the surveyor a total idiot.

The OP asked for opinions and was given them, some from people who have also been in the same position as the OP.  Until people (including the OP) have actually seen the report everyone is speculating and that includes you, yet here you are even suggesting how much the OP should lower their offer!

DVN999

Ok, so the report is not ready yet but the surveyor has sent me the following as a summary, to give us a better idea of his observations. Thanks in advance for any assistance translating this!

The roof is the original and covered with natural slates. These deteriorate with age and as a result of exposure to the elements. The fixing nails can also fail.

The slates are still largely intact but with a few having slipped. The roofs also have a streaked appearance indicating wear. As the slates wear thin this can also cause the holes through which the nails pass to wear away. This type of damage will be progressive. There were no obvious signs of leakage affecting the living space at the time of inspection but I would strongly recommend you regard the roof as being at the end of its life. (This is further suggested by our noting that at least two of the three neighbouring houses of the same age/type have already had their roofs replaced).

When seen from within it is also apparent the roof is not underfelted - as is usual for its age. Felt is intended to reduce the risk of wind driven rain or snow penetrating beneath the slates - and also provide a secondary means of defence if slates are damaged or displaced. The absence of felt is not automatically reason to recommend replacement but given external condition is further evidence to regard this roof as being in need of replacement. The slates were backed by cement torching, securing the slates to the timber battens to which they are nailed (and also intended to reduce the risk of rain penetration) but this has largely broken down, contributing to a build up of debris in the void.
As the undersides of the slates are visible, these can be seen to be extensively worn and "crumbling" on the undersides (The similar debris that affects the external surfaces gets washed off by the rain).

My recommendation will be that you obtain estimates for stripping the whole of the roof (including that to the bay), supplying new slates (I do not expect any of the existing to be capable of reclamation and reuse). These should be laid on underfelt and new battens. New flashings will need to be provided to the parapet above the party wall and around the chimney (which will also need repair in the course of these works). The lead valley gutter at the rear will need to be reformed.

No specific damage was noted to the roof timbers in the course of a very limited inspection but any programme of reroofing should include full examination - and treatment, repair or renewal of any found to be affected by infestation or decay.

A large-scale reroofing programme of this type will be subject to building regulations.

GDB2222

It does sound like you should budget for recovering the roof. No doubt, you could get by, as the current owners have, with occasional work to replace slates, but that will become more and more frequent.  Roof repairs are not cheap - I've just had £1k work done to my roof, and I've spent £2k over the previous 5 years. 

You'll need to get quotes.  The only real question is how much of this cost you should reasonably expect to get off the agreed price. On the one hand, you weren't expecting this cost imminently. On the other hand, you weren't buying a house with a new roof. 

purplebutterfly

It does sound incredibly similar to my survey - apart from I will be able to re-use at least half the tiles (according to the roofer) and my surveyor did extensive tests on the timber in the roof, so I know that they are all structurally fine. 

Mine are rosemary clay tiles and not slate -  I don't know what difference that makes - but the torching on my tiles has also disintegrated due to age.  

We will have a new roof when we need it.  It is currently not leaking and the moisture levels in the roof are within normal range so I am hoping to wait a few years.

I think a lot of vendors take the view that, if you are buying an old house with an original roof, even a whole re-roof comes under the category of "normal maintenance". 

The cost of materials is currently ridiculous and timber is in short supply everywhere, so I'm hoping prices settle in the next couple of years or it might well cost more than the quotes I've had 

purplebutterfly

I would add that there are usually similar houses in my area having roof work done and they put the old tiles on FB Marketplace as free for collection.  We shall be using as many free tiles as we possibly can, when it comes to it.   

I don't know if it  is possible for you to do the same and keep an eye out for free reclaimed materials. 

youth_leader

My house was 172 years old and I commissioned my own survey before I went on the market.  It had the original roof, my surveyor said it 'was at the end of its life'.  Apparently the owner in the 70's had been told he had nail rot but subsequent owners, including ourselves, had roofers in for repairs.   My roofer said it had suffered from bad repairs in the past, but was 'Queen' quality slate, and had years left in it.