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Roofing info needed

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I own a circa 1965 "Dorma style" house.  In 2018 I had the wooden panels and felt roof replaced with UPVC cladding and rubber respectively due to the ingress of damp. All the lead work was also renewed. Recently water has dripped through the roof at the point where the vertical UPVC meets the slope.  From outside everything looks in tact. I have had 4 roofers look at it.  2 said they needed to replace the cladding, 2 said the underlying felt was displaced.  Prices ranged from £400 to £3000. Only one, the most expensive, took the trouble to respond in writing.

I don't expect anyone to be able to diagnos the issue without inspecting but perhaps some one could explain to me a) why the different diagnosis? b) how could UPVC cladding/rubber roofing materials deteriorate in such a short time? c) Why should displaced felt cause a leak, surely it's the tiles that keep the water out? d) Is there a professional roofing body/organisation for the customers benefit, not the roofers who I can refer to in order to start over with trustworhy tradesmen.

Thanks in advance to anyone with the expertise who has taken the trouble to read my long rambling post and respond.

 jezmartin 03 Apr 2022
In reply to Gaston Rubberpants:

Look for a company who are members of the ‘NFRC’ National Federation of Roofing Contractors

https://www.nfrc.co.uk/using-a-member?keyword=nfrc%20roofing&gclid=EAIa...

In reply to jezmartin:

Thank you. Unfortunately it's only come up with one within a 20 mile radius and he was one of the ones I contacted who did not turn up to investigate. In total 3 neither turned up or even bothered to get back in touch. To date I only have one written quote and 2 verbal.  Despite being asked they have not come back with a written quote.

Post edited at 07:39
 MG 03 Apr 2022
In reply to Gaston Rubberpants:

Can you investigate yourself? Most trades are very busy currently and probably not inclined to do a lot of investigation without a contract in place. 

 bridgstarr 03 Apr 2022
In reply to Gaston Rubberpants:

I had similar nonsense recently from roofers. I needed some minor remediation done and even had one fella say I needed a new roof! In the end I bought a ladder and did it myself.

I'm not sure I can help much in terms diagnosis, other than to suggest that if everything is in tact, and you've only seen a small amount of moisture it could be due to condensation rather than leakage.

 Trangia 03 Apr 2022
In reply to Gaston Rubberpants:

Get a report from a Chartered Building Surveyor, who can investigate and diagnose the problem, prepare a schedule of repair, and oversee the repairs? Although you will have his/her fees to pay, it may be cheaper in the long run as you are getting conflicting advice from the contractors.

2
In reply to MG:

I have had a look myself.  There is nothing obvious on the outside and the fact that I have had different solutions proposed it would appear that it's not obvioius to the "experts" either.

 Gustavo 03 Apr 2022
In reply to Gaston Rubberpants:

I doubt the rubber roof or upvc have degraded in such a short time period. They should last for years.

Does the water drip appear during or just after rain or does it also happen during dry spells? You may find the problem is condensation due to a lack of roof space ventilation. You'd  be surprised just how much condensation can form in an unventilated roof space.

 Alkis 03 Apr 2022
In reply to Trangia:

Unless you have a surveyor you can trust, I expect the report to be about as much use as the full building survey I got for my house pre-purchase. My toilet paper has more information of value about the house imprinted on it...

 flatlandrich 03 Apr 2022
In reply to Gaston Rubberpants:

I'm not going to try to diagnose your leak issue but my first port of call would be the original roofing company that did the work for you in 2018. I would expect any roof work to be covered by at least a 10 year guarantee.

Also, after a winter of storms I'd expect every decent roofing company would still be booked up months in advance doing repairs so I doubt few would be interested in a small and potentially complicated leak finding job, which would explain your lukewarm response from roofing companies. 

  

 Alkis 03 Apr 2022
In reply to Gaston Rubberpants:

I can't help I'm afraid but I've had very similar issues trying to get a leak in my concrete flat roof sorted. Most tradesmen I asked didn't really even look at it and gave stock answers that made zero sense in the situation. If you have any tradesmen you can trust enough not to just give you the number of their mates, ask them who they would use for their own house and even ask them for their opinion of what could be happening.

 PaulW 03 Apr 2022
In reply to Gaston Rubberpants:

Trying to get a roofer recently was difficult. (Surrey). Unless I wanted a whole new roof they were not too interested in the job. Super busy I guess so they can pick and choose

 Rogsax 03 Apr 2022
In reply to Gaston Rubberpants:

What condition are the ridge tiles? 

Are they are a modern clip system or older with mortar bed and jointing?   The latter do need re-doing every blue moon or so.   If rain water gets in there, it'll be collected by the felt (which is a secondary means of defence) and should run down and be deposited in the gutter without you even being aware.   Obviously the dormer interrupts this and the felt should be dressed accordingly, but if it's not this would be where the water could enter in the location just as you say.

Rebedding and pointing all the ridge tiles is a day's job for a roofer + labourer.     Say, gross rates of 300 + 200 + materials and ancillaries = £700 max.    And I'll bet you could find a cash arrangement for £500 in t'north.     A local 'fix' far less.   If this fixed the problem, you can then take time to get good quotes for lifting the tiles to the dormer cheeks and rectifying the felt issue.      Obviously I'm talking blind, but I am a construction project manager of too many decades so my guessing isn't total random noise. 

1
 gethin_allen 03 Apr 2022
In reply to PaulW:

> Trying to get a roofer recently was difficult. (Surrey). Unless I wanted a whole new roof they were not too interested in the job. Super busy I guess so they can pick and choose


Near me everyone seems to be getting their roofs relaid, maybe 8 of the 30 houses have been done in the last few months. It baffles me as IMO all bar one or two would have been easily repairable.

The sad thing is that all bar one of the roofs have been laid incorrectly; The houses are all identical so it's easy to calculate that they haven't given enough overlap on the concrete tiles for the pitch of the roof. My guess is that they didn't add the extra row required for spec because they didn't want to add a divider between the new roof and the adjoining roof and it won't cause any problems until the battens start rotting or the membrane fails.

Our similarly poorly done roof leaks when the wind drives the rain under the tiles.

 Sherlock 04 Apr 2022
In reply to Gaston Rubberpants:

Trying to picture this.

Do the lead gullies (watergates) run down the side of the dormer?If so check these are not blocked by running your fingers carefully down where the lead is hidden under the edge of the roof tiles.

Any blockages here will cause water to overlow the lead. I've seen it several times in the past when scratching my head at other causes. A cheap,quick and easy fix. Best of luck.

In reply to Sherlock:

Another roofer called yesterday and did some minor tweaking to the lead work and didn't even charge me.  Will have to wait for some hard driving rain now to see if it worked.  Thanks everyone.

 daWalt 04 Apr 2022
In reply to Gaston Rubberpants:

sorry if i'm stating the obvious, but you could point a garden-hose at different bits of the roof to test locations (it can take a wee while for water to work its way through if it's coming in via a convoluted route)

In reply to daWalt:

Hose has already been ordered.  The point of ingress is a longway from a tap and my current hose does not reach.

Post edited at 15:21

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