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Anyone with expertise in lead roofing about? We had a bay window replaced last year. The lead roofing required replacement, and a local roofer was used. In the heavy rain last week water came through the new bay roof... suspecting that it had leaked through the roof, the roofer was called and immediately blamed our gutters. The lead was fine he states...and wants £800 to replace the gutters. We got a second opinion today, and the new guy explained to us it looked as though the wrong code lead was used, and looking at the quote provided at the time, code 4 lead was used. The new roofer shows us the regs, explaining that a minimum code 5 thickness should have been installed. Obviously we weren't to know it was incorrect. Also the lead flashing has been bodged as well...it's not long enough, so has been bodged with silicone and mortarin places. Anyone know where we might stand with suing the original roofer for frankly shoddy workmanship and using the incorrect materials? We don't trust him to actually fix it given he's obviously ripped us off in the first place...or he blatantly doesn't know the regs.
Possibly... Trades people are amongst the worlds’ best at dissing others in the same trade and every other trade. Reasons why this is particularly prevalent in the construction industry are many and varied but generally boil down to emotional intelligence, ego and fear.
Obtain at least two more professional opinions, preferably without giving them too much of a heads up on recent history, apart from that it’s started leaking.
HTH
Hey, I am a lead roofer by trade. Do you have any pictures? I am assuming that the bay window top has either been installed in one piece or in multiple sections using wood core roll to separate the bays? Code 4 can be installed in up to 1.5 metre lengths dependant on bay centres of 600mm, code 5 2 metres, code 6 2.25 metres, code 7 2.5 metres and code 8 3 metres. This is to alllow for thermal movement. If the bay has been put in one section, although it may be oversized, it is unlikely to fail in the course of 1 year, as the outcome of this is typically buckling and splitting in bays that cannot move due to being oversized etc. It sounds more likely that the issue is with the silocone etc, as lead should either be cut and welded or bossed, albeit that this tends to be reserved for roll ends.
Palmer ^^^ up there clearly knows his lead. However code ****ing anything shouldn't leak at all after that amount of time. I could dress it with 1200 gauge polythene and if done correctly it shouldn't leak. Palmer may disagree but he/she will know exactly where I'm coming from.
Pictures needed really
As above the code doesn’t matter this early in its life
Equally how the lead is fixed in place has a significant effect, it should only be fixed in the top third (following the downward angle) of the bay etc. Quite often dormer tops are fixed in place around the leading edge using nails to prevent windlift, however this effect should be achieved using a copper or stainless steel strip fixed to the timber and then with the lead brought over the front and turned under and around the strip creating a drip edge and mitigating windlift.
All of this aside though is speculative without any pictures showing how the work has been undertaken. I would suspect that it has not been carried out by a leadwork, and perhaps therefore any fabrication that would need cutting and welding has not necessarily been done correctly.
Here's some of my work...
As an ex roofer of 28 years speaking that’s some real nice work there
Thanks, I’m semi-retired myself from roofing that is, as here in Spain they don’t really use the same materials but I still go back to the UK from time to time to help my bro-in-law out.
I know sweet FA about roofing but that looks the bees knees!
Very very nice Palmer, I knew straight away from your first post you knew your shizzle and lead for that matter, I had an actual plumber on site the other week to do a lead china mans hat on a faceted roof, old school mustve been 60 years old +. Such a shame that real tradesman aren't still coming through.
Thanks guys. I did an apprenticeship about 25 years ago and have been on and off the tools over the years. I've had the bad knees, shoulders and hernias to go with the job, but lead is such a versatile material and a pleasure to work with.
This is from a more recent job on Beel House (where Ozzy treid to kill Sharron!)
I know sweet FA about roofing but that looks the bees knees!
+1
The quality in that first pic is just beautiful. Do hope you pass the skills on, construction still needs fellas like yourself in huge numbers as the amount of chuck it up merchants these days outnumber you guys by so much. You should (and I'm sure you are) be very proud of your skillllzzzz!
A true craftsman, very impressive and nice to see.