rot in roof - any ideas of costs/getting quotes

mlz1413

if it's dry rot walk away!!!

my fella is a builder and he says wet rot is easy to cure - stop the water/damp and it stops the rot.

But dry rot is another matter as its hard to pin point how it starts and how therefore how to stop. You can cut it all out but i don't think that is a guaranteed cure - please ask the specialist who come out. But most of all make seller do recitfying work (costs can spiral and you don't want to be living there with work going on) and be prepared to walk away if the survery still comes back with problems.

poppysarah

I'd leave it. Starting to sound too expensive.

£150 for a shed? Nah.

Spread your search a bit and wait a while.

Seriously.

emujuice

hmm, to be honest I think he'll walk away. although he'd be fairly daft to, as the work will want doing.
Going to get a specialist to look at it.
Damn it, it really is a big property for the money - it's going to be hard to go back to looking at terraces, or even semis.
bah

mrs_deadline

Oh dear, it's starting to sound like a blank cheque job...

I would let him know that suspected dry rot puts a different light on things, return the keys, back off and just let the news sink in for 2-3 weeks. You can't get someone to negotiate while they're in denial. It's not the house you thought it was, which is upsetting. (Probably even more so for him, if he was looking at it as a nice little nest egg).

Bide your time. Good luck. Something better than that must come up eventually!

emujuice

hmm, well the specialist is going to look at the photos the roofer took for him and see what he thinks. although he's out of action for the mo coz of an operation. sounds like he's just doing it as a favour to us and the roofers. Nice man. BUT he did say that it's very unusual to have dry rot in at 1970's house and it might yet be a different rot - fingers crossed for wet rot (who'd have thought I'd ever say that).
Otherwise we'll have to pay timberwise £80 to come and look it. There's hope yet!
now to sort out the flat roof...

ken_and_dot

Wet rot is simply the timber that has gone rotten in a localised area due to prolonged exposure to water. It's easy to repair as it only means replacing rotten timber. Dry rot is another matter. It is a fungus which can easily spread through stone and brickwork and affect all the timber in the house if the conditions are right. If you go ahead you need the work carried out by a specialist who will give an insurance backed guarantee. I'm not sure how the mortgage comany will react if they know it is dry rot.

emujuice

Hi all,

thought you'd like an update. It looks like it is dry rot. bah. So while we're getting that treated and the roof repaired we may as well get a whole new roof. This is going to cost around £5000. We've asked for £6000 off to also cover the flat roof repairs (although one roofer thought it would probably be ok if we keep putting ronseal on it).
Anyway, he came back with £2000 and we said no, but if he does the repairs we'd still be happy to take it. he's now come back with £4000, so I think we'll go with that. Take our chances with the flat roof. Get the dry rot seen to proffessionally and at least get a new roof for our trouble. not a brilliant result, but having spent money on surveys and solicitors and we still haven't seen a house we prefer or even comes close, we think we should go for it.
Its a family house for at least 10 years. the roof probably would have wanted doing at some point anyway.
Sigh, just wish it didn't - then we might have been able to get some money for cosmetic upgrades!!!

poppysarah

I have to say I think you're mad.

I think before you make any decisions you should go view a few more houses. Look at some wild cards.

What if when the builder takes the roof off says "oh it's gone further than I thought and now it'll cost you £20k"

What will your mortgage company say?

m1ntie

poppysarah wrote: »

I have to say I think you're mad.

I think before you make any decisions you should go view a few more houses. Look at some wild cards.

What if when the builder takes the roof off says "oh it's gone further than I thought and now it'll cost you £20k"

What will your mortgage company say?

I agree you are taking a HUGE risk - if I were you I would re-consider.

emujuice

thanks guys. we looked at 2 more houses last night. still not as nice, although the nearest we've seen. If we're planning on a new roof anyway and the treatment for the rot, hopefully it can't get much more expensive than that. I understand your concern, but everyone who has seen the house and knows the problems (family etc... who will have to help us with costs think we should still go for it).
Here it is by the way. the photos don't do it justice, but the decorating as it is gives us a blank canvas.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chocolatecaroline/sets/72157604155147127/