Help! Badly slated new roof?

The headlap looks ok in the section of verge in your picture but the verge doesn't look properly finished. There should be another layer of slate - the 'undercloak' which is attached to the barge boards and bonded to the top layer with mortar. The detail can be seen on page 18/19 of the Welsh Slate publication at the second link.

palaceray makes a good point about the short verge slates. If they're less than 150mm the sidelap is too small, the ones in your picture look ok assuming these are 300mm wide slates.

The nails look fine, aluminium is about 20% cheaper than copper but either will do the job. Your roofer should use what he quoted for but it's a fine distinction.

Getting an expert opinion can be difficult, a chartered surveyor is the best option but they aren't all experts in roofing. The RICS website has a search facility.. http://www.ricsfirms.com/

Surveyors don't come cheap although you may get an informal opinion to help you decide what to do next. If it comes to full reports then your house insurance can help if it contains legal cover.

The CORC won't be much help, they'll tell you not to let anyone touch the roof until you've had a survey done. I'd stay away from building control, they don't offer opinions on work quality and where 25% or more of the roof has been replaced they'll point out that the whole job should be subject to their approval and certification from the outset.

For now I'd just have a conversation with the roofer along the lines that you aren't happy with the work, the Velux definitely isn't flashed correctly, the slates don't lie flat and the verges are unfinished. In fairness you should give him a chance to put any issues right. The difficulty is any solution will require a lot of work and he may be reluctant, in which case you start to think of other remedies. Of course keep a record of all conversations in case you need to refer to them later.

None of the issues should have taken the roofer by surprise, you can see right away if the rafters are uniform enough for slates and it takes only a straight edge or a piece of string to check. You see immediately if a slate will lie flat when it's placed and before nailing it down. Spanish slate has had a bad name in the past but a lot of it is very serviceable these days, there's no reason why the roofer wouldn't be able to do a reasonable job if he sourced some decent Spanish slate and sorted it properly.
 
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Looks like some of the slates aren't sitting on their top batten, so are kicking up.
 
The headlap looks ok in the section of verge in your picture but the verge doesn't look properly finished. There should be another layer of slate - the 'undercloak' which is attached to the barge boards and bonded to the top layer with mortar. The detail can be seen on page 18/19 of the Welsh Slate publication at the second link.

palaceray makes a good point about the short verge slates. If they're less than 150mm the sidelap is too small, the ones in your picture look ok assuming these are 300mm wide slates.

The nails look fine, aluminium is about 20% cheaper than copper but either will do the job. Your roofer should use what he quoted for but it's a fine distinction.

Getting an expert opinion can be difficult, a chartered surveyor is the best option but they aren't all experts in roofing. The RICS website has a search facility.. http://www.ricsfirms.com/

Surveyors don't come cheap although you may get an informal opinion to help you decide what to do next. If it comes to full reports then your house insurance can help if it contains legal cover.

The CORC won't be much help, they'll tell you not to let anyone touch the roof until you've had a survey done. I'd stay away from building control, they don't offer opinions on work quality and where 25% or more of the roof has been replaced they'll point out that the whole job should be subject to their approval and certification from the outset.

For now I'd just have a conversation with the roofer along the lines that you aren't happy with the work, the Velux definitely isn't flashed correctly, the slates don't lie flat and the verges are unfinished. In fairness you should give him a chance to put any issues right. The difficulty is any solution will require a lot of work and he may be reluctant, in which case you start to think of other remedies. Of course keep a record of all conversations in case you need to refer to them later.

None of the issues should have taken the roofer by surprise, you can see right away if the rafters are uniform enough for slates and it takes only a straight edge or a piece of string to check. You see immediately if a slate will lie flat when it's placed and before nailing it down. Spanish slate has had a bad name in the past but a lot of it is very serviceable these days, there's no reason why the roofer wouldn't be able to do a reasonable job if he sourced some decent Spanish slate and sorted it properly.

Thank you again Tony, I appreciate the time you have taken to help. Are you a roofer?

I see what you mean about the verges, I thought they looked unfinished. The gap between the slates and the felt looks large enough to allow rain to drive in sideways (that particular gable end is facing south-west, directly at the recent conveyor belt of storms). The welsh slate brochure is very clear about the proper ways to do things!

Thanks again, and I won't take any more of your time.
 
It doesn't get much worse than that i'm afraid.
Not much more to say than has already been covered.

Slates have not been sorted at all, verge overhang is way too much (wind will have them straight off), pretty sure the top course doesn't cover and the eaves looks so so.
Wrong flashing kit for the velux, cutting is rough... I won't go on!

Nails are fine, I'm not a fan of Spanish slate though either.
 
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I already rubbed him up the wrong way by asking him how much headlap there would be and how the starter course would be done at the start of the job. I felt bad and didn't mean to tell him how to do his job.
Bad job - bad customer.

Wonder which came first?
 
I already rubbed him up the wrong way by asking him how much headlap there would be and how the starter course would be done at the start of the job. I felt bad and didn't mean to tell him how to do his job.
Bad job - bad customer.

Wonder which came first?

So the customer has gone through a reasonable process to select a contractor. He has specified a slate roof and hasn't been advised that it would be a problem in advance. He has asked a few pertinent questions about how the work will be done. This is entirely reasonable behaviour, what did he do to have you accuse him of being a bad customer noseall?

If a contractor is 'rubbed up the wrong way' by a paying customer showing a sensible interest in the work being done to his property then that alone sounds alarm bells. Competent tradesmen welcome customers who show an interest in the job.
 
I understand what noseall is saying. The odd question is fine but when customers start telling you how to do your job that becomes bloody annoying.
Genuine questions are of course no problem, its the ones who want to watch everything all day.
 
If they start telling me how to do my job I just tell them to do it themselves.
 

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