Apologies if this is overly long but it may be of interest to someone and hopefully might elicit some useful advice.
We got a single storey extension built 5 years ago, the flat roof is failing and the builder is now ignoring our communication. The builder in question is a small to mid size company of apparently reputable standing in the Solihull area of over 20 years, we did get personal references from someone locally who had just had similar work done. The work was completed toward the end of 2016 and had building control approval, all seemed fine. The winter at the end of 2017 was quite bad with very low temperatures and snow covering the roof for several weeks. In the following spring we noticed that the rubber roof membrane started to lift and bubble all along one edge and parts of the roof now felt soft and unsafe to walk on.
Over the next 12-18 months we contacted the builder repeatedly, during this time he sent out 3 separate roofers to assess the situation who agreed there was a problem but were reluctant to state what they thought the problem was. The rubber continued to separate from the deck and the roof became more unstable. He eventually made the ludicrous claim that in his expert opinion the roof was failing due to being excessively walked on! We threatened legal action and he agreed to fix the problem but not after first trying to get us to pay half the cost which we of course refused. In October of 2020 he finally appeared. They removed the rubber covering and the plywood deck underneath had all delaminated and had clear black mold patches on the underside. He now made the claim that the plywood must have been a bad batch and had failed and his solution was to replace it all with superior OSB board and to cover that with good quality felt rather than the rubber which he also intimated was causal in the roof failing. After 2 years we were just pleased that he had apparently accepted responsibility and was prepared to rectify the problems. We should not have been so accommodating.
We have prior emails from him stating categorically that the type of roof that they had constructed was a warm roof with the insulation placed above the deck. When they removed the plywood it was plainly clear that what they had actually built was a cold roof with the insulation placed within the supporting roof beams below and none above. I didn’t have knowledge of the different roof types then but I do now. As I understand it, with a cold roof it’s essential as per building regulations that adequate ventilation is provided to allow rising warm air to escape, without it condensation will form as it meets the cold top deck. There was no ventilation provided at all even though it was stipulated in their original quotation document. He tried to provide some nonsense explanation as to why it wasn’t necessary in this case. Also I learned that there is no vapour barrier above the plasterboard ceiling which I believe should be there.
So, they did rip off the existing rubber and ply deck and replaced it with OSB and felt. A couple months later in December heavy rains came again and leaks started to appear in several places in the rooms below. He dispatched his roofer again to deal with it. He had to come 2 more times over the winter period to deal with leaks. In September of this year we discovered a large mold patch on one of the walls, it was obscured by furniture so we didn’t immediately notice it. I removed the plasterboard and the block work behind was soaking wet. Throwing a bucket of water across the roof above where there was a drain outlet showed a trickle of water streaming down the internal wall below. There was a noticeable gap where the roofing felt met the drain outlet, I repaired this myself which seemed to fix that issue. Now just recently more heavy rains have come and again leaks in another area have appeared prompting yet another visit from his roofer. His roofer seems genuinely helpful but doesn’t feel responsible as he had nothing to do with the initial construction and realises there is a fundamental condensation problem caused by lack of ventilation. The upshot being they made a temporary fix of the symptom of a failing roof deck which caused further problems with water leaks and will itself certainly fail again due to the ventilation issue. After a couple of texts the builder is now ignoring our communication. Our patience has finally run out and now looks like it’ll have to be legal action. Not totally sure of the process now so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Is it worth contacting building control as I can’t understand how they passed off a roof requiring ventilation that clearly had none.
We got a single storey extension built 5 years ago, the flat roof is failing and the builder is now ignoring our communication. The builder in question is a small to mid size company of apparently reputable standing in the Solihull area of over 20 years, we did get personal references from someone locally who had just had similar work done. The work was completed toward the end of 2016 and had building control approval, all seemed fine. The winter at the end of 2017 was quite bad with very low temperatures and snow covering the roof for several weeks. In the following spring we noticed that the rubber roof membrane started to lift and bubble all along one edge and parts of the roof now felt soft and unsafe to walk on.
Over the next 12-18 months we contacted the builder repeatedly, during this time he sent out 3 separate roofers to assess the situation who agreed there was a problem but were reluctant to state what they thought the problem was. The rubber continued to separate from the deck and the roof became more unstable. He eventually made the ludicrous claim that in his expert opinion the roof was failing due to being excessively walked on! We threatened legal action and he agreed to fix the problem but not after first trying to get us to pay half the cost which we of course refused. In October of 2020 he finally appeared. They removed the rubber covering and the plywood deck underneath had all delaminated and had clear black mold patches on the underside. He now made the claim that the plywood must have been a bad batch and had failed and his solution was to replace it all with superior OSB board and to cover that with good quality felt rather than the rubber which he also intimated was causal in the roof failing. After 2 years we were just pleased that he had apparently accepted responsibility and was prepared to rectify the problems. We should not have been so accommodating.
We have prior emails from him stating categorically that the type of roof that they had constructed was a warm roof with the insulation placed above the deck. When they removed the plywood it was plainly clear that what they had actually built was a cold roof with the insulation placed within the supporting roof beams below and none above. I didn’t have knowledge of the different roof types then but I do now. As I understand it, with a cold roof it’s essential as per building regulations that adequate ventilation is provided to allow rising warm air to escape, without it condensation will form as it meets the cold top deck. There was no ventilation provided at all even though it was stipulated in their original quotation document. He tried to provide some nonsense explanation as to why it wasn’t necessary in this case. Also I learned that there is no vapour barrier above the plasterboard ceiling which I believe should be there.
So, they did rip off the existing rubber and ply deck and replaced it with OSB and felt. A couple months later in December heavy rains came again and leaks started to appear in several places in the rooms below. He dispatched his roofer again to deal with it. He had to come 2 more times over the winter period to deal with leaks. In September of this year we discovered a large mold patch on one of the walls, it was obscured by furniture so we didn’t immediately notice it. I removed the plasterboard and the block work behind was soaking wet. Throwing a bucket of water across the roof above where there was a drain outlet showed a trickle of water streaming down the internal wall below. There was a noticeable gap where the roofing felt met the drain outlet, I repaired this myself which seemed to fix that issue. Now just recently more heavy rains have come and again leaks in another area have appeared prompting yet another visit from his roofer. His roofer seems genuinely helpful but doesn’t feel responsible as he had nothing to do with the initial construction and realises there is a fundamental condensation problem caused by lack of ventilation. The upshot being they made a temporary fix of the symptom of a failing roof deck which caused further problems with water leaks and will itself certainly fail again due to the ventilation issue. After a couple of texts the builder is now ignoring our communication. Our patience has finally run out and now looks like it’ll have to be legal action. Not totally sure of the process now so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Is it worth contacting building control as I can’t understand how they passed off a roof requiring ventilation that clearly had none.
