Help needed re leaking low pitch tiled roof.

[smileyriley]

Hi

I'm completely new to the forums so I hope I'm asking these questions in the right place?

We bought our house 5 years ago and our extension roof (9 degree pitch) is tiled and leaking heavily. The water is pooling above the outer door and windows and pouring through as soon as it starts to spit. The extension is approx 7 years old.

We had a surveyor round but he said it's bad workmanship and the roof needs to be fixed...REALLY!

Anyway we've been looking online and have come across EPDM. We will probably need to replace some boards too as we think they are probably damaged from the water intake. Could you advise of the boards we will need and also any advice on if the job is doable by a competent DIYer?

We have 2 velux windows in the roof and the surveyor was surprised by this too.

I appreciate your help with this.

I can upload any pictures that would be required.

Thanks

 

[masona]

We bought our house 5 years ago and our extension roof (9 degree pitch) is tiled and leaking heavily. The water is pooling above the outer door and windows and pouring through as soon as it starts to spit. The extension is approx 7 years old.

Should never happened, the pitch is too low!

We have 2 velux windows in the roof and the surveyor was surprised by this too.

Might have to change it

I can upload any pictures that would be required.

Can you do that for better advice?

 

[smileyriley]

Thanks for your reply. Have just been outside for pictures and the roof has been covered in tarpaulin so I can't take a picture

Have taken a couple of pictures of the inside so you can see the slope I mean. The tiles are "concrete interlocking tiles" and are laying flat, hence the water getting underneath them. The concrete at the end of the roof has also cracked and needs repairing.

The previous owner "cowboy John" built the extensions and sold the house quickly as I have been told that he knew the roof had problems

Prob no use but have taken a picture of the roof right now, with the tarp in place. It's practically flat.

View media item 25830 View media item 25831 View media item 25832 View media item 25833

 

[masona]

Is there a small flat roof section on top which I can see underneath?

The previous owner "cowboy John" built the extensions and sold the house quickly as I have been told that he knew the roof had problems

hmm, do you have the drawing plans because I'm surprised the BCO have passed this. The reason I ask because someone may be liable for this to put right

 

[smileyriley]

the flat section that you can see on the inside is just how the ceiling has been put in. the roof doesn't have a flat section it continues up.

I think I do have the drawing plans, will have a look for them. What would I be looking for on them?

Thanks for taking the time to reply.

 

[masona]

I think I do have the drawing plans, will have a look for them. What would I be looking for on them?

To see if it passed by BCO which will be on there somewhere & also who did the drawing plan etc

 

[SASroofer]

That pitch is way too low for any type of tile, your only options are to either strip the roof back to rafters, ply deck and 3-layer felt it with a mineral capping sheet (you can keep the velux's but you would need to purchase newflashing kits, and the right ones)

or strip the roof and re-pitch it usind furring pieces (you may need planning to raise ther roof level though.)

1st option will cost you new materials and labour, 2nd option costs less on materials because you could re-use most of existing but will cost more labour.

 

[smileyriley]

Thanks for your replies.

Does it have to be felt? Is our roof not suitable for the EPDM? I have such limited knowledge so have no idea.

I'm still looking for the drawings but I know I have them here.

Thanks again.

 

[masona]

I'm still looking for the drawings but I know I have them here.

If not, your BCO will have them

 

[SASroofer]

You could use EPDM certainly, think at the end of the day the choice betweenm those two is based purely upon the aesthetic side, its you who has to look out of your window at it every day.

I know which I'd rather see

 

[hardmetalking]

It would be easy to install metal standing seam, copper, zinc or stainless steel. However I'm sure Velux roof lights should be fitted to a minimum 15 degree pitch but with this type of roofing you could just jack the back up to achieve this pitch and weather around them as normal.

 

[hardmetalking]

How about something like this......................

VM Quartz zinc

• hardmetalking
• 4 Sep 2010
• 1

Won an architecture award, although not sure if the zinc had anything to do with it!

Can go down to 3 degree pitch, fit and forget for your lifetime.

Avaliable in different colours also.

 

[SurreyRoofingEstimator]

We had a case here with EXACTLY the same problem. The BCO in the end, after much badgering by our client, admitted at least some responsibility as it should NEVER have been passed by by them.

We used a single ply membrane and because our client didn't want to raise the roof-lights to their minimum 15 degree pitch, we encased the frame with the membrane and fixed the flashing units over, this worked very successfully and was re-passed by Building Control.

In the first place the builder is at fault but BC get paid a lot of money to see these issues don't arise before they become a problem so see where you can get with them (they paid 50% of our clients costs, mind you she was a complete pain in the wotsit lol)