Why is my roof leaking ??

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skimmin2day

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Got a call ealrlier this week, guy said he had is loft boarded and skimmed last week by some local cowboys and now his roof is leaking ( roof was fine with no leaks prior to this ).
Told him id come to have a look as i was working in area next day for £30 ( explained im not a help line and would require a small charge )

Get there... theres several wet patches in the ceiling that had been reskimmed and boarded ... oh lord these guys where rough as f~~k.

I ripped a couple of boards off near wet patches and immediatly could see the problem.

Heres the tip guys NEVER nail boards to rafters in lofts as this can loosen slates / tiles on the roof and cause leaks especialy in older houses.
If you go in heavy handed with the hammer you gonna get problems.

Screw with 32mm galvinsed screws.
 
so are we to also take it that theres no cellotex, no breather, no ventilation, in an old house with a SLATE roof with no felt...in the process removing the loft insulation...methinks this guy owes you a rather large cup of tea... ;D
 
Been asked a couple of times to convert roof space into a loft, always declined due to complexity of building regs. Like segs says no kingspan- no insulation; no ventilation. Loft space should be completely insulated to comply, be hot in summer and cold in winter (and cracked) . Stopped using nails about 8 years ago when drywall screws became so cheap.

I agree, tend to use hammer sparingly. ;)
 
right you are mate, not a simple little job them...biggest headache for me is what to do with the floor joists....sometimes its easier to pull the whole bleedin roof off and re-truss it with attic trusses, then re-cover, then you can worry about kingspan etc...
last one we did was just that, each truss was 1/2 a ton, then theres doubles round the windows, breather felt...then 90mm cellotex inbetween, 25mm over the inside as thermal break, then boarded over using 60mm drywalls...love to see em trying to nail THEM in place!!! ;D
 
Double kite-bend stairs, 15ft long 9' x 2' joists. ceiling trimmers to remove, party wall act, etc. Makes plastrin seem sooo easy.
 
u know wot? if you told joe public it would be cheaper and easier to build a 15ft x 10ft flat roof single extension theyd think you were tryin to rip em off... :-/
 
Carrying on the original thread, customer I,m working for is having bungalow renovated. Boiler replaced by plumber for previous owner about 2 year ago.

Now is a plumber a roof or builder? No if he,s corgi reg, he can play about on roof with tiles and flashing (plumbers should have been trained in lead flashing).
Plumber has run 13-15ft of flue with 2 x 90 deg elbows with terminal though roof, all held with one piece of expamet repair band!!!
Flashing pushed under tiles, lower tiles not fastened back in place. Result all slipped forward, roof leaking for past year (while empty).

Dont mind putting things right but my 5yr old son could probably see the obvious piss poor workmanship, not to mention the hazard of flue leaking.

Lounge ceiling just crumbled when probed with mi index, some of timber taken a beatin too.

My weekend words of wisdom are: Dont do what you cant do right, doubt they will be heeded though.
 
What do these Home Inspectors get paid for?? Any accountability?? I pointed out lounge ceiling straight away to customer, FOR FREE :-?
 
I used to work for a loft conversion company, if you got competent carpenters you can bosh em out for a reasonable price. Regs are a nightmare though, whats right in one area isn't in another. I've always found inspectors will help you out if you kiss arse and ask questions (even if you know the answer!)
 
how were the easy ones pug?? with supporting walls on footings (gotta dig a test hole to prove it like) i had one down for sliding 7x2 in along the roofline, removing 1st two rows of tiles to do it, then bricking up a course or 2 to make the roof work again, purlins propped of supporting walls...didnt get the job though...
its the regs that f'ck it, your right with the inspectors bit, if i aint sure i usually ring em and get em on site then say 'what do you wanna see in that'...do it...problem is pricing it if you aint 100 percent sure...
 
6 week per conversion on average from start to finish (not decorated) rarely had any complications. 99% of the time we used steels, purlins sat on those. But like you say, pricing is the bugger, i was labouring and running round for all the other trades, including the spreads at the time so that was down to the guvnor. We were quite pricey cos we were the nuts!
 
yeh, y see, quite a long time scale, 6 weeks, 4 blokes, 6 grand, double it, wont be far out, works in reverse, 12 grand all in 2nd fixed, any less is a compromise...
so, steels?, props only onto timber purlins?, steel purlins? steel floor joists? steel the lot out? the bleedin things freak me out cos of all the 'supporting' factors....
 
thinking on, bet thats cheap, cellotex etc gonna bump it up a bit..
 
thinking on, bet thats cheap, cellotex etc gonna bump it up a bit..
Click to expand...

yup, thats cheap! prices for a small one started around £18,000,. Steels sit in pockets cut into inside skin of brick work. Floor joists hang off steels, purlins sit on steels, all trusses are are beefed up with 6x2. insulation is where the biggest discrepancies occur in regs between authorities. once you've done a couple it becomes simple as abc. ;) more stress than i can cope with though!
 
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