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Hi
So, my parents have an old flat roof that’s not in a good state. Its last repair was in July and my parents were given a 12 month guarantee after paying £500 for a repair.
My parents are in their late 70’s and my dad went into hospital just before Xmas. My mum was alone in the house when the bathroom ceiling caved in and the roof is now actively leaking.
I live about 60 miles from my parents so can’t easily get over there to take photos of the outside, however I have sent photos of the inside damage to the roofer.
He’s claiming that the water ingress is nothing to do with his repair and must be due to the general condition of the timbers around the roof letting water in etc. Note that he’s not visited my parents house and is speculating.
I feel this is more than a bit rubbish - my parents paid him £500 for the repair with the expectation of a guarantee of work for 12 months / expected it to be water tight.
What’s the STW roofer / builder take on it?! Thanks
Not a roofer, but I’d think it depends what the repair he did was. If it was just a part of the roof and that bit was still fine and it’s something else then presumably his guarantee wouldn’t count. If it’s a 12 year old flat roof it may have been at the point it needed replacing entirely but your parents didn’t want to pay for that so did some kind of patch repair.
Without knowing the extent of the repair / what the guarantee says (if indeed it was in writing) it’s hard to 100% say who is in the right / who is in the wrong here. From the description now it sounds like a total rebuild of the roof is in order and then fix the cosmetic bits internally after that.
Depends if he's right, really, and the nature of the work he carried out. The guarantee he gave would only be for the work he did.
It’s very difficult to assess the condition of the roof as a whole without photos. How old is the flat roof? Is there standing water left after it has been raining?
My guess is that the roofer repaired a section of the roof that was obviously in need of repair which would still be sound but the roof is now leaking from another part of the roof.
Flat roofs are very unreliable at best but if done well, should last 25-30 years.
You must also appreciate that a good chunk of the £500 would be for access, scaffolding and the time to erect it needs paying for.
Interesting and reasonable points.
As far as i know the £500 was for a patch repair , the roof is ground floor so only requires a small ladder etc.
I guess my main question is - is it reasonable for the roofer to say it’s definitely not his work that has failed, without seeing it?
The key is the £500. That's a minimal amount and, depending on location, it represents at most a day for two roofers without materials, etc.
Crossed post...
Someone needs to have a proper look at the whole roof
Unless he knows he patched over a different area to the bathroom I guess it’s hard for him to say with full confidence it’s not his bit that’s failed. Depends on the nature of the repair he did though.
For a ceiling to collapse I’d imagine a fair amount of water needs to be getting in - as far as I’m aware a flat roof has a plywood / osb deck above timber joists as the main structure (with waterproofing / felt above it). Then under that you’ll likely have plasterboard ceilings. <br /><br />
So for water to gush through the bathroom ceiling either the osb / plywood has collapsed (would have to be very wet) or one of the joists has collapsed meaning the plywood / osb has dropped and ripped the felt as it’s gone.
If I had carried out a patch repair (I would never advise this) using a good quality torch on felt then I’d be happy to say that the repair would still be sound twelve months later. As I said above, most probably the roof will now be leaking in another place. Such is the way with a flat roof.
Edit, if access is just by ladder, I wouldn’t be put out if a customer asked me to have a quick look when I’m passing by. Might be worth a polite phone call to get an informed opinion.
This probably comes down to what the roofer was asked to do in July. Was he asked to assess the whole flat roof section and carry out any work that was required, or was it more, we've got a leak, can you fix the bit of roof where the water is coming in? What does the invoice/quote/contract say?
Either way, it's going to cost you a lot of time and emotional energy to try to get him to move on this.
Does your parents home insurance offer any options to help with this, either to chase the builder or cover the costs of the incidental damage?
Personally, I'd chalk it up to experience and get another company in to assess and repair.
What form did the 'guarantee' take?
Written, verbal or did your parents just assume there would be one?
Can your parents disprove the roofer's assertion that another part of the roof failed?
Does the roofer have any trade accreditation/membership?
I think you/your parents won't get anywhere with this.
Do your parents have buildings insurance?
Unless it's obvious that the felt repair has failed, you'll waste time arguing the toss with the roofer, time that you could have spent getting that roof tarped up today and repaired ASAP by another firm.
Looking at tomorrow's forecast, that should be your priority.
The invoice is hand written and just says
“patchwork , felt roof extension, new felt
12 month guarantee “
I’m not sure whether it’s a reasonable assumption or not but my parents assumed they’d have a water tight roof for a bit at least.
My parents have very little money, live in a fairly isolated location and my dad’s stuck in hospital so it’s all quite a challenge to the least, trying to arrange things from 60 miles away.
Anyone know any friendly roofers near market Rasen?!
Sounds like just a patch of a small area to fix a leak to me. That’s not going to cover you for a leak / failure of another part of the roof.
You / your parents just need to get a roofer on asap to assess the issue / get it fixed as quickly as possible. Sounds like the roof is probably in a bad state of repair overall.
No reason not to use the same roofer if he’s available / in the area - I don’t see he’s done anything wrong if he was just asked initially to do the cheapest repair possible to fix a leak. He may have advised on more ideally being done but asked to take the cheapest route.
I think there are good reasons to not use the same roofer again.
He has shown no interest in visiting to look at the roof and has washed his hands of any possible responsibility.
A good roofer would have given the roof a visual inspection and reported any findings; he didn't - as far as we know.
A handwritten invoice including the words '12 month guarantee' doesn't inspire any confidence; most (all?) reputable businesses, regardless of size, will produce an electronic or printed hardcopy invoice.
What is he guaranteeing?
In the absence of more facts from OP any further comment is pointless speculation.
Trouble with patchwork is that it's a sign that the whole roof is potentially problematic, and the issue that required the previous patch caused more damage at the time to the structure. If it's a ground floor flat roof then probably worth getting over and having a look, 60 miles isn't that far, hour and a half in the car quick once over, stop for dinner and back again in a day easy.
I'd also say the roofer who did it is probably being dismissive as they'd have talked about other issues at the time, especially if they've just patched over with some felt and not repaired other underlying issues due to cost.
If you had a puncture repair, you wouldn't expect a comeback on any guarantees if six months later your cambelt snapped.
Frankconway has it though; the fact he won't / hasn't offered to come and inspect it is poor form. A roofer is always going to be busy after a storm of course, but that being the case he should have said that rather than flat out refusing that it's anything to do with him.
I think I'd be getting a second (first) opinion; a third party may be able to confirm or deny a connection to the previous work (I've no idea how obvious a previous repair would be) in an honest manner.