roof "overhaul"

LillyJ

Hope someone can help.

We are in the process of buying a house, and the survey has come back as the roof having some broken tiles, with the conrete underneath the tiles being old and in a bad state of repair. It stated it needed a complete "overhaul". We are waiting for permission from the vendor to get quotes for this, but was wondering what ballpark are we talking here? It is a 1930's semi. Will it be hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands? I just don't have a clue and really worried that this will affect us buying this house if we can't afford it.

Thanks

liitleblackcat

We had ours done (1938 semi) as we were having part of the roof taken off for an extension about 18 months ago. I suspect it will depend on how big it is and how "broken" the tiles are.

The scaffolding was already up around our house - but that cost about £300 a week. The roofers took a week to take off the tiles and put them back with new sarking underneath. There were 2 roofers most of the time at about £200 a day each. We didn't have to have any replacement tiles, but they are quite cheap if broken ones need replacing - I checked on eBay to see what out spare ones were worth.

So the total cost for the front, back and side, including putting up and taking down the scaffolding was about £2500 + VAT + materials.

Incidentally, they dropped most of the mortar on top of the insultation in the loft space - it took me another 2 days to clear that up and take it to the dump - about 20 bin bags full. Cover everything in the loft with plastic sheeting before they start or expect a huge clearup afterwards.

And............if they find problems with the rafters once the tiles have come off, it could be more.

LillyJ

liitleblackcat wrote: »

We had ours done (1938 semi) as we were having part of the roof taken off for an extension about 18 months ago. I suspect it will depend on how big it is and how "broken" the tiles are.

The scaffolding was already up around our house - but that cost about £300 a week. The roofers took a week to take off the tiles and put them back with new sarking underneath. There were 2 roofers most of the time at about £200 a day each. We didn't have to have any replacement tiles, but they are quite cheap if broken ones need replacing - I checked on eBay to see what out spare ones were worth.

So the total cost for the front, back and side, including putting up and taking down the scaffolding was about £2500 + VAT + materials.

Incidentally, they dropped most of the mortar on top of the insultation in the loft space - it took me another 2 days to clear that up and take it to the dump - about 20 bin bags full. Cover everything in the loft with plastic sheeting before they start or expect a huge clearup afterwards.

And............if they find problems with the rafters once the tiles have come off, it could be more.

Wow. That is scary. That actually may be enough for us to pull out of the sale altogether if they won't drop the price (I suspect they won't). I didn't realise it was that big a job needing scaffolding and stuff. I think I will hold off passing money to the solicitor and wait and see what the quotes come back as! That is a major blow.

Joannaclaire

Why not get a roofing expert to go and inspect the roof and give you a quote for what needs doing? That way you'll know for sure what kind of amount you're looking at and what exactly needs doing.

LillyJ

Joannaclaire wrote: »

Why not get a roofing expert to go and inspect the roof and give you a quote for what needs doing? That way you'll know for sure what kind of amount you're looking at and what exactly needs doing.

That is what we are going to do, but it takes time to arrange. If it was going to be in the hundreds or less than 2k at the most then I would carry on and pay the solicitor, but if it is likely to be more then I will wait and halt the proceedings until we have more of an idea of price.

ormus

if its just replacing a few tiles then a few hundred will take care of it.
if the roof needs a complete retile, then allow at least 5k.

andrew-b

On the tiles, keep an eye out for neighbours having loft conversions. I got about a dozen spare roof tiles off a builder doing a loft conversion down the road for nothing who was only going to chuck them away. We have a couple of chipped tiles and one that has been replaced in the past with a new tile of different colour. As the tiles are the bottom course i'm going to get them replaced when we replace soffits/fascias and sarking felt.


Andy

LillyJ

andrew-b wrote: »

On the tiles, keep an eye out for neighbours having loft conversions. I got about a dozen spare roof tiles off a builder doing a loft conversion down the road for nothing who was only going to chuck them away. We have a couple of chipped tiles and one that has been replaced in the past with a new tile of different colour. As the tiles are the bottom course i'm going to get them replaced when we replace soffits/fascias and sarking felt.


Andy

Thanks, that is a good idea.

I drove past today (it's only round the corner) and it doesn't seem drastic at all, and it was only a number 2 category on the survey so isn't urgent. It definately says it doesn't need a new roof but the "conrete under the tiles is badly worn" and needs repair. I think there are probably about 15 broken tiles just from looking at the roof.