Roofer misdiagnosis

chris316

Sorry if this is in the wrong section.

I've had a leak in my house that's looking like it's coming from the roof. I've had a roofer out and he did the work he said would solve this problem, however the next time it rained it leaked again. When I got him back out he found something else that could be causing it so paid him again. Surprise surprise it leaked over the weekend.
He's provided photos both times of the work carried out so I've no qualms that he's not done what I've paid him for.

I don't care what work he's carried out though, I've gave him one job..... Stop the leak.... Which he's failed to achieve. 
 
Is this common with roofing jobs, is it just trial and error? 

When I've messaged him over the weekend he's read it and not replied.

What's my next step here? 

tacpot12

It's not that uncommon, because roof can leak in multiple ways. The best contractors will review all the details of the roof, and try to keep an open mind as to the cause(s), but it's not easy to do this when you find a definite problem. The temptation is to say "This is the cause", and then fix that problem and assume that that will be that. I don't think it is necessarily the sign of a bad tradesperson, it's human-nature. The best tradespeople are aware of this, but if they can't see another problem, and they do tend to hope that the problem is fixed because the customer's don't always want to pay for more investigating time if that time doesn't find any problem that can be fixed.

However, having given him two chances, and had these fail, I think I would be inclined to give up on the trader and try someone else.  

pinkshoes

I agree with @tacpot12. Roofs are a nightmare to find a leak on as water can run across beams/tiles so it's often quite hard to find where the water is getting in. Then when the wind is blowing it can force water in another way!!

We "diagnosed" ours ourselves after having a similar experience with a roofer. Mr Pinkshoes went up to the loft when it was raining heavily and there he stayed, trying to find where it was getting in! It was leaking through our bedroom ceiling, and mainly when it was windy and raining, but the water was actually getting in much further away then travelling across beams, so it wasn't what we thought it might be!

user1977

As another example, I once had the experience of overflowing gutters completely bypassing the top floor flat (the water was running down behind the plaster), then travelling horizontally under its floorboards and appearing through the ceiling of the flat downstairs. So I wouldn't assume it's easy to identify where the water is actually coming from.

TELLIT01

Possibly not mis-diagnosis, but multiple small leaks which can be a nightmare to identify in one go.  He may have found some each time.