Survey results and getting roofing quotes

lf89

Hi there..

We've recently had our survey back and it was considerably worse than we'd hoped. I'll put the main highlights per roof below...

No cowls to chimney pots.

Strongly presumed asbestos containing man-made slates on bay.

Early signs of cement failures, some cracked tiles, poor tile protrusion, old clay tiles, valley issues.

Ripped felt, no eaves carriers, rot to rafters, condensation, numerous containers catching drips (inside loft void).

Cracked render, moss growth and damaged sills.
Underboard ceiling in Bedroom 2.
Wood boring insect.

The survey is very detailed and we've a 'debrief' next week. I was thinking though in terms of getting roofers to quote the costs of what they've identified, would the roofers need to visit the property themselves? we'd like to get 2-3 quotes for an accurate picture through which we hope to renegotiate price - but organising 3 seperate visits would likely wear our vendors patience thin. 

Would providing the roofing sections of the report be adequate for estimating a quote? or would they need to visit for themselves? 

Appreciate any/all insight.

Thanks,
Liam

ThisIsWeird

Is this a place you are planning to buy? How old is it? Any chance of photos, or a link to the listing?

What are you expecting to be required - a repair (how long is a piece of whatsit?), or a full roof recover? Pricing for the latter should be relatively easy; "a roof this size will be between £x and £y". Allowing, of course, for some rafters probably needing repair or replacement, but a very good idea for this should be gettable from looking in the attic.

 

lf89

ThisIsWeird said:

Is this a place you are planning to buy? How old is it? Any chance of photos, or a link to the listing?

What are you expecting to be required - a repair (how long is a piece of whatsit?), or a full roof recover? Pricing for the latter should be relatively easy; "a roof this size will be between £x and £y". Allowing, of course, for some rafters probably needing repair or replacement, but a very good idea for this should be gettable from looking in the attic.

 

We're gauging whether we continue with the purchase right now. It's 1904 so Edwardian, the survey suggestion was for full roof recover as it's at the 'end of its technical life'. A chimney stack was also removed which didn't come up in any of our searches so we need to query this...

It's a 3 bed terrace which has seen very little love, everything i've seen online points to between 15-20k all in with skip, scaffold, replacing rotted joists and then there's whatever it costs to remove the asbestos tiles...

The main thing is whether providing these photos & the survey would be enough for accurate quotes so we can negotiate with vendor? I appreciate visits in person is best, but we'd want several quotes and that's alot to organise.

Albermarle

A couple of houses on our street had to have new roofs and they both took the opportunity to build a loft room/dormer at the same time. Presumably the latter cost less than it would do normally, but I do not know  for sure.

lf89

Albermarle said:

A couple of houses on our street had to have new roofs and they both took the opportunity to build a loft room/dormer at the same time. Presumably the latter cost less than it would do normally, but I do not know  for sure.

We do not have the £20k to do the roof as it is, let alone the £60k to do a dormer...we are not blessed with wealthy parents, we're first time buyers who've saved hard just to get the deposit. 

FreeBear

Those tiles look fairly modern, and the felt certainly doesn't look Edwardian - I suspect the roof has been stripped at some point in the last 25 years or so. In which case, the tiles have plenty of life left in them.

There are a couple of slipped tiles in the first image - Not a hugely expensive fix if you can find someone prepared to work off a ladder.

TELLIT01

Without site visits any figure supplied by a roofing company will be nothing more than a guess.  It won't be an estimate.  I would walk away if you can't even afford the £20k figure you have seen.  You may also find that the mortgage provider won't provide full funding until after the work is done.

lf89

FreeBear said:

Those tiles look fairly modern, and the felt certainly doesn't look Edwardian - I suspect the roof has been stripped at some point in the last 25 years or so. In which case, the tiles have plenty of life left in them.

There are a couple of slipped tiles in the first image - Not a hugely expensive fix if you can find someone prepared to work off a ladder.

No I expect some work was done 16+ years ago before current vendors bought it. They've just done 0 to maintain it and it's very apparent, they didn't disclose any works to us except replacing patio doors (which were a complete bodge!).

I appreciate surveys emphasise the worst, but it seemed very clear the roof needs doing sooner than later.

lf89

TELLIT01 said:

Without site visits any figure supplied by a roofing company will be nothing more than a guess.  It won't be an estimate.  I would walk away if you can't even afford the £20k figure you have seen.  You may also find that the mortgage provider won't provide full funding until after the work is done.

Good to know then, I guess we have to organise some visits. Thanks. 

We intend to save for 1-2 year's to do the whole roof, we just aren't blessed with parental deposits, all our savings are the deposit + boiler & electrics. 

The house was already valued at our mortgage amount so am not sure why they wouldnt provide full funding?

FreeBear

lf89 said: The house was already valued at our mortgage amount so am not sure why they wouldnt provide full funding?

Depends if the mortgage provider has seen a copy of the survey - If they haven't (which would be good), they won't know about any faults that might affect the value.

As for the roof, if the leaks can be patched at a nominal cost, you shouldn't have to worry about it for a few years. My roof was in a lot worse condition before I had it stripped last year (didn't even have any felt under the tiles).

lf89

FreeBear said:

lf89 said: The house was already valued at our mortgage amount so am not sure why they wouldnt provide full funding?

Depends if the mortgage provider has seen a copy of the survey - If they haven't (which would be good), they won't know about any faults that might affect the value.

As for the roof, if the leaks can be patched at a nominal cost, you shouldn't have to worry about it for a few years. My roof was in a lot worse condition before I had it stripped last year (didn't even have any felt under the tiles).

The survey was just done this week so nothings been shared, is there an obligation for us to? 

Yeah we understand there's some minor works that could be done as a stopgap, but we'd rather hold for a year or two and put those funds towards a total redo which would support wider problems with mould/condensation. Not sure..