Advice from Roofer Needed

PoGee

Are roofers not meant to look inside the attic when preparing a quote? I need a re-roof done but despite saying twice - look in the attic, he declined each time. He says there may be rotting beams. So why not take a look? The tiles are not nailed onto the beams but onto something that looks like green plasterboard so the beams can be seen in their entirety. I know that the beam ends, where they hit the soffits/ the bit holding the gutters, are rotten so will need sistering. I'm concerned that the whole roof will be off and he comes and says something like 'you need 3 beams replaced'. He said, to replace a whole beam would be £1k in itself.

EssexExile

Get more quotes, go with a roofer you trust.

travis-powers

You need to look elsewhere, I’m a carpenter by trade but have tiled in many a roof, I would like to see the condition of rafters before I would give a price just to give me some idea of what needs to be done, they should also be checking your level of insulation before a job.
To supply and fit replacement rafters on a stripped roof is a easy job, I would be less than £100 each obviously depending on length and width.

PoGee

travis-powers said:

You need to look elsewhere, I’m a carpenter by trade but have tiled in many a roof, I would like to see the condition of rafters before I would give a price just to give me some idea of what needs to be done, they should also be checking your level of insulation before a job.
To supply and fit replacement rafters on a stripped roof is a easy job, I would be less than £100 each obviously depending on length and width.

Thanks for your advice travis-powers. I'll look again. He sat in our living room chatting for 20 mins but refused to go into the attic and then the £1k for a beam....I thought....something not right. They've actually got got google reviews, which is one reason why I picked them. Shows that reviews aren't everything.

Bendy_House

PoGee said:

He said, to replace a whole beam would be £1k in itself.

WHAT THE FLUFF!

If by 'beam' he means 'rafter', then - regardless of how good he is - he needs showing the door.

Exploitative bar steward. Probably.

FreeBear

To be fair, if you have had water leaking through and sitting on top of a roof timber, any rot may not be visible from inside the loft.

Have (had) a timber running down the side of my chimney. On the outside was a mortar fillet that was letting a bit of rain through. Suffice to say, this timber had a bit of rot setting in just under the tiles. Looked fine from underneath, but the extent of damage could only be seen with the tiles off.

TELLIT01

Not all rot may be apparent from looking in the loft, but without even bothering to look he has no idea of the state of the timbers. 

PoGee

TELLIT01 said:

Not all rot may be apparent from looking in the loft, but without even bothering to look he has no idea of the state of the timbers. 

Exactly my point - at least look at it. When I had a bathroom fitted, I said to the fitter that the plaster behind the tiles was probably wet. It was and the fitter confirmed this by tapping on the tiles. He didn't just look at the bathroom from the door.

travis-powers

One thing I forget to mention is that it’s notifiable work, most roofers are part of a scheme and can do this for you if not you will need to involve building regs, not a big deal but your roof will need ventilation if it don’t already have it and insulation must be up to spec. 

FreeBear

travis-powers said: One thing I forget to mention is that it’s notifiable work,

Only if you are stripping more than 25% of the roof.

travis-powers

FreeBear said:

travis-powers said: One thing I forget to mention is that it’s notifiable work,

Only if you are stripping more than 25% of the roof.

With all due respect pretty sure op will be having all of their roof done not a quarter of it, it’s an important factor for them to bring up when dealing with quotes!