Help identifying issues in loft.

[mrgonzo]

Hi all.

Having renovation works done and the builder has boarded out the loft for us.

Apart from removing structural elements that he insists are fine but the engineer says no, he's retiled the roof and redistributed the old insulation around the loft and just plonked it on top of the really old granulated (hopefully cellulose) insulation. He hasnt gone round the whole loft just where he fancies by the looks and when I went up to inspect there's quite a lot of light shining through behind the chimney stack.

Plus I pulled him up on a shoddy velux install which he has now fixed but I'm still not convinced.

I would really appreciate some help with this as we're up to the final payment and I just don't think this is up to snuff but I might just be being anal.

Thank you.

 

[foxhole]

Not clear what your concern is, you only mention him doing insulation but none of the photos show this?
What is meant by redone the roof?

 

[Sonic70]

What structural elements has he removed?

 

[DAZB]

All depends on what you contracted him to do but the insulation is very poor and you will not feel the benefit of what he has done in that area. The daylight behind the chimney seems excessive and I would want that looking at and the Velux.... it should have double trimmers either side and he has just stolen the existing rafter and used it to fix the Velux to which has left a noticably widen gap between rafters and the side timbers actually look like they stand proud of the horizontal timber. In short you have reason to have a word but it all depends on what he has quoted you for as to whether he has fulfilled his role.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Apart from removing structural elements that he insists are fine but the engineer says no, he's redone the roof and redistributed the old insulation around the loft and just plonked it on top of the really old granulated insulation. He hasnt gone round the whole loft just where he fancies by the looks and when I went up to inspect there's quite a lot of light shining through behind the chimney stack.

Daylight and what appears to be a water leak, onto the timber in photos 3 & 4.

He's taken out a complete rafter, which he should not have done, and for no obvious reason.

The Velux rafters, should have had the rafters sistered at either side.

Insulation - what insulation?

 

[mrgonzo]

Thank you for all your replies, I've tried to answer as best as possible.

Not clear what your concern is, you only mention him doing insulation but none of the photos show this?
What is meant by redone the roof?

Its all under the glued and screwed boards no new insulation was applied and he's just redistributed the existing rolls between the joists. The photos show the only visible insulation that's not covered.

And the roof has been retiled with the velux installed. Externally a few people have said the velux looks skewed and I asked a roofer to go up and he also said it looks skewed.

What structural elements has he removed?

He removed two diagonal and two horizontal struts from the king post which the engineer has said his 'fix' isn't adequate as the weight isn't being redistributed properly but builder is adamant what he has done will suffice.

All depends on what you contracted him to do but the insulation is very poor and you will not feel the benefit of what he has done in that area. The daylight behind the chimney seems excessive and I would want that looking at and the Velux.... it should have double trimmers either side and he has just stolen the existing rafter and used it to fix the Velux to which has left a noticably widen gap between rafters and the side timbers actually look like they stand proud of the horizontal timber. In short you have reason to have a word but it all depends on what he has quoted you for as to whether he has fulfilled his role.

Luckily after I posted this there were roofers across the way doing a job and the pointed out a loud of issues I ckuding the velux is on the wonk and the timber that sites proud means if I wanted to put plasterboard up it would need redoing.
And I feel like he's cheapest out reusing the old rafters and shimming (packing?) where's he's cut one too short.

Had he fulfilled his role personally I don't think so, this was to compensate for not building our extension over the garage as he went off plan and broke the party wall agreement. So we said forget the garage extension we'll take a boarded loft roof redone. The velux and hip end retile were going to be done as part of the garage extension, no discount just instead of the 2 rooms and a WC.

Daylight and what appears to be a water leak, onto the timber in photos 3 & 4.

He's taken out a complete rafter, which he should not have done, and for no obvious reason.

The Velux rafters, should have had the rafters sistered at either side.

Insulation - what insulation?

I can't say whether that water damage is new or old unfortunately never been in to that part of the loft until now. Yeah I feel like it's been cheaped out on. That's his fix after I complained as before the fix it was really poor and even a lay person like me could open up a collins and see that. Yeah he's just redistributed the insulation and for all I know it's not been done evenly boards are glued and screwed.

I really appreciate the responses, I did manage to get roofers to check it out not long after posting and they picked up way more issues they gave me a video of the issues they picked up.

Thank you.

 

[foxhole]

If you board out the loft the floor needs raising to accommodate at least 270mm of insulation .