House roof doesn't have felt

todayissunny

We are in process of selling house. Survey flagged roof. Until now we didn't even know we have roof. So we decided to call in independent roofer to tell us if there are any problems with the roof. Apart from missing few tiles there wasn't anything major that needs repairing. But roofer said that we need to replace whole roof as there is no felt under tiles. And quoted us £14000 for a terrace house. From my understanding is normal for the older houses right? At least according to a Google. 

lfc321

There's nothing to stop you living perfectly happily under a roof without felt if the roof is otherwise sound - we have done in several houses for many years. It is perfectly normal for older houses to have no felt under the slates/tiles.

However, at some point (e.g. if they want to re-roof anyway, or potentially if they want to add insulation/convert the roof space into a habitable room) your buyers will, as the roofer said, need to take off the roof covering, install felt, and re-roof. It will depend on the nature and condition of the existing tiles whether these can be re-used or whether they'll need new ones (I'd assume new ones).

Costs hard to judge without knowing the size/complexity of the roof and your area, but £14K sounds about the right ballpark (assuming this includes new tiles). There is no way I would be doing this as a seller: this is for the buyers to do if/when they want. In your shoes, I would replace the broken/missing tiles, but not re-roof.

Albermarle

However, at some point (e.g. if they want to re-roof anyway, or potentially if they want to add insulation/convert the roof space into a habitable room) your buyers will, as the roofer said, need to take off the roof covering, install felt, and re-roof. 

We had a loft converted into a habitable room. The roof was just tiles with no lining and was not replaced ( maybe the tiles were lined as part of the conversion, I can not remember) 

It was fully inspected by building control with no problems.

Grizebeck

The house we are living in the moment (terraced ex mining period house is slate with no felt. Still has the original torching.
A lot of roofs don't have have felt/membrane

Sg28

Our 1960s 3 bed semi had the original felt still which had various holes and tears and the tiles were fairly poor too so we had many leaks soon after moving in. We decided to just replace the whole thing so nee felt and tiles. The total cost (2 years ago) was £7500, so 14k sounds very expensive! 

However as others have said, unless its leaking it doesnt need doing and is something for your buyers to potentially consider in the years to come if nessersary.

mexican_dave

Roofing felt under the tiles, is put in place during construction of a house to enable other trades (electricians, plumbers, etc) requiring some weather protection to proceed with their work. Eventually the roofers finish the roof with tiles etc, therefore the roofing felt has served its purpose. The only secondary benefit of roofing felt in this scenario is it helps keep dust out of the loft space, useful back in the day when nearly every house had coal fires or coal boilers! Building Regs are only interested in roofing felt (and modern replacements) at construction stage as set out above.
So if this work is being demanded by the buyers, then they need educating. A few loose tiles let the buyers fix them, so irritating!

todayissunny

lfc321 said:

There's nothing to stop you living perfectly happily under a roof without felt if the roof is otherwise sound - we have done in several houses for many years. It is perfectly normal for older houses to have no felt under the slates/tiles.

However, at some point (e.g. if they want to re-roof anyway, or potentially if they want to add insulation/convert the roof space into a habitable room) your buyers will, as the roofer said, need to take off the roof covering, install felt, and re-roof. It will depend on the nature and condition of the existing tiles whether these can be re-used or whether they'll need new ones (I'd assume new ones).

Costs hard to judge without knowing the size/complexity of the roof and your area, but £14K sounds about the right ballpark (assuming this includes new tiles). There is no way I would be doing this as a seller: this is for the buyers to do if/when they want. In your shoes, I would replace the broken/missing tiles, but not re-roof.

Thank you that's very helpful

todayissunny

mexican_dave said:

Roofing felt under the tiles, is put in place during construction of a house to enable other trades (electricians, plumbers, etc) requiring some weather protection to proceed with their work. Eventually the roofers finish the roof with tiles etc, therefore the roofing felt has served its purpose. The only secondary benefit of roofing felt in this scenario is it helps keep dust out of the loft space, useful back in the day when nearly every house had coal fires or coal boilers! Building Regs are only interested in roofing felt (and modern replacements) at construction stage as set out above.
So if this work is being demanded by the buyers, then they need educating. A few loose tiles let the buyers fix them, so irritating!

Thank you. It wasn't our buyer but an independent roofer that we asked for an advice. What's worst they were acting like they haven't seen such a thing before. I even questioned why our survey when we bought house didn't brought this up. He said it was bad survey. I would assume that experienced roofer would be aware of the fact that not all old houses have felt. Or perhaps he just tried tried to get a job. 

theartfullodger

todayissunny said:

We are in process of selling house. Survey flagged roof. Until now we didn't even know we have roof. ...

Blimey! Many might have wondered why water didn't come in when it rained.... 

FreeBear

Late 1920s semi here. It just had reed with a lime torching under the tiles. Over the last 90 years or so, the mortar has fallen away along with much of the reed. It was only a couple of years ago that I had the roof stripped and a new membrane fitted - Didn't cost anywhere near £14K though..

And no, it is not that unusual to see properties without felt under the tiles.

Wizardry24

Wish I had seen this before getting the roof redone on a pitched slate roof  (one bed bungalow circa 1900) with no felt. We were told the same thing, because there is no felt, we have no choice but to replace the whole roof, which we did. We paid £9k for the roof (Dec 2023)  and still have discolouration on the wall where it meets the ceiling, which we figure is coming from the gaps in the coping stones. My question is, how can we prove where the leak is coming from so that we can get the roofer to come back and fix it. We had a different company come and have a look -  they said we should take the roofer to the small claims court and report him to trading standards for his shoddy workmanship. He also told us that the coping stones had not been pointed. We don't know who or what to believe. And don't know what to do next.  . Any advice will be highly appreciated.