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I'm most of the way through purchasing a 1960's house, but the building survey has thrown up that the roof has 2 years left and needs replacing.
It's a semi 2 storey property with a rough square meterage (worked out from Google, so angles may add a bit to this) of 72m.
Half the roof is original asbestos fibre cement tile, the other half is slightly more modern non-asbestos cement.
The older part has no membrane / felt and is reliant on the tiles for all waterproofing. The newer part has a bituminous felt.
It will likely need scaffold around the 3 exposed sides, all tiles removing, asbestos/ non asbestos tiles desposed of accordingly and replacements of a slate - look tile. All timbers look dry and sound.
So far we have a rough ball park figre of betwen 20 and £30k (inc VAT) hich the current vendors say is nuts.
Getting roofers to quote seems to be tricky, so thought I would see if there are any on here to sound out. We are in Devon if it matters.
Any ballpark figures for costings to see if our original quote is, indeed, nuts?
but the building survey has thrown up that the roof has 2 years left and needs replacing.
That's a very specific life span for a building survey. Any clues as to how they came to that. Is there existing damage or leaking ?
Asbestos (if confirmed) can add significantly to costs, or enthusiasm to quote/take on the job. Might be worth getting the sellers to agree to access for the tiles to be tested, couple of hundred ££ for a test might reduce disposal costs a lot.
So far we have a rough ball park figre of betwen 20 and £30k (inc VAT) hich the current vendors say is nuts.
Politely suggest they get a better quote for you to consider, if they don’t agree with the one you have!!
I’m most of the way through purchasing a 1960’s house, but the building survey has thrown up that the roof has 2 years left and needs replacing.
Personal experience tells me you've never had a survey on a house done before. That the roof needs work/replacing etc is about as common as your name and address and is almost always an arse covering exercise from your surveyor.
There will be a line in there about the loft too because they won't have done more than lift the hatch (unless it's converted).
The 2 year but would make me think of anything it was replaced (eg) 23 years ago with a 25 year guarantee, especially if the loft is converted or similar.
So far we have a rough ball park figre of betwen 20 and £30k (inc VAT) hich the current vendors say is nuts.
Who gave you the figure? As vendor I'd be looking at one of three answers, (a) haha, and? (b) give us three formal quotes, (c) priced to account for the work anyhow, don't like it don't buy it we'll relist it.
If you're suggesting taking money off the bid I can't see them taking the word of STW for a £30k reduction.
Any clues as to how they came to that.
Surveyors in England have a list of how long things last (I don't know about other countries) from a database of many years.
They can recommend either a specific survey or replacement based on time alone, it might be worth contacting them and see if they'll go with a roof survey
I had a complete reroof done (all tiles, battens & felt replaced plus chimney pointing) around 8 years ago on a 3-bed mid-terrace in Salford. It needed scaffolding front and back. L shaped roof, no idea what sqm.
We paid IIRC around £3600 and that was a highly recommended roofer, not the cheapest.
Based on this alone, £30k sounds nuts even with asbestos.
This may or may not help :p
The older part has no membrane / felt and is reliant on the tiles for all waterproofing. The newer part has a bituminous felt.
Bullshit alarm.
That’s my alarm going off. Your surveyor is feeding you BS. But this is a common misconception that is easily preyed upon. All tiled roofs are reliant on the tiles for all waterproofing.
Half the roof is original asbestos fibre cement tile, the other half is slightly more modern non-asbestos cement.
Nothing wrong with asbestos tiles unless there’s something wrong with them. And as above nothing wrong with membrane/felt being in poor condition or absent, so long as the tiles are all present and correct. Are there actually any leaks? You haven’t said there are so I presume not. You say timbers are good so there appears to be no issue. It’s fine.
Have any neighbouring houses (assuming similar construction) had a re-roof? If they have go ask why. If they haven’t (I suspect they haven’t) ignore your surveyor.
Yesterday's roofing cost thread may help.
As for the house buying I would put a roof with no felt on the need to sort list and asbestos tiles will likely be more expensive to remove (shouldn't be just dropping them off the roof into an open skip through a tube like a normal roof).
As for surveyors they recommend 3 or 4 extra surveys, don't look in front of them very far and put the fear of god into house buying (probably rightly as there is always super expensive stuff needing doing). For our current house a wall tie survey was recommended ignoring the obvious marks where new ties has been drilled through and bonded in. A quick ask and there was even 2 years of the 25 year warranty left on them.
However definitely use the roof thing to negotiate with. Selling houses will get harder soon due to interest rates and 'going halves' on large need to dos is a common compromise.
Thread link:
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/roofing-costs/
Where in Devon?
Bullshit alarm.
That’s my alarm going off. Your surveyor is feeding you BS. But this is a common misconception that is easily preyed upon. All tiled roofs are reliant on the tiles for all waterproofing.
What do you think the membrane is there for then if the tiles are supposed to provide all the waterproofing?
Our house is still on its original clay tiles roughly 100 years old, with no membrane. We have no leaks. It is however bloody dusty up there