Hi everyone,
I've just signed up for advice on a leaking roof.
First the house/roof: 3 storey, 1850s terrace house in Clapham, London. House is 5.5m wide, 9m deep. Roof is a slate roof, not steep at all (loft is around 1m high) with a valley in the middle, draining at the rear of the house. The valley is lead, in 5 sections, with 5cm steps. Valley is about 4 feet wide at the front of the house, 1 foot wide at the rear. Valley barely slopes. The last two sections have pools of water as the roof has sagged over the years. These sections have had the joints Acropol-ed some years ago, with evidence of old leaks.
The valley leaked in the last (rear) section. Roofers came round, charged 2000 pounds and put in new lead, elevating the higher end to stop the pooling. This reduced the leak in the last section, but now water leaks from the wooden boards supporting the lead in the 2nd last section. The roofers came back, charged another 1000 pounds to reset slates around a Velux window, but still without fixing the leak. They then came back again with a quote for 16000 to redo the whole roof, generously discounted by the 3000 we'd already paid them to 13000.
This is where I need some advice:
- for the amount originally paid (3000), should I expect the leak to be completely fixed? The original work was the roofer coming round to inspect the leak, saying X needs to be done and this is how much it will cost. From my perspective, I paid for the leak to be fixed, which it isn't.
- assuming the roof needs to be replaced (which I doubt), what would be a fair price range for redoing the valley in lead, membrane, battens, slates, etc?
- is lead the best material for this? The roof valley is completely invisible from below. How about a single piece of EPDM instead of all the lead work?
- suppose we redid just the valley, in say EPDM instead of lead. Is this feasible without touching the existing slates?
Thanks in advance for your advice! Any roofers serving the Clapham area wanting to take a look and quote for fixing it are also most welcome.
Cheers
Stephen
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I've just signed up for advice on a leaking roof.
First the house/roof: 3 storey, 1850s terrace house in Clapham, London. House is 5.5m wide, 9m deep. Roof is a slate roof, not steep at all (loft is around 1m high) with a valley in the middle, draining at the rear of the house. The valley is lead, in 5 sections, with 5cm steps. Valley is about 4 feet wide at the front of the house, 1 foot wide at the rear. Valley barely slopes. The last two sections have pools of water as the roof has sagged over the years. These sections have had the joints Acropol-ed some years ago, with evidence of old leaks.
The valley leaked in the last (rear) section. Roofers came round, charged 2000 pounds and put in new lead, elevating the higher end to stop the pooling. This reduced the leak in the last section, but now water leaks from the wooden boards supporting the lead in the 2nd last section. The roofers came back, charged another 1000 pounds to reset slates around a Velux window, but still without fixing the leak. They then came back again with a quote for 16000 to redo the whole roof, generously discounted by the 3000 we'd already paid them to 13000.
This is where I need some advice:
- for the amount originally paid (3000), should I expect the leak to be completely fixed? The original work was the roofer coming round to inspect the leak, saying X needs to be done and this is how much it will cost. From my perspective, I paid for the leak to be fixed, which it isn't.
- assuming the roof needs to be replaced (which I doubt), what would be a fair price range for redoing the valley in lead, membrane, battens, slates, etc?
- is lead the best material for this? The roof valley is completely invisible from below. How about a single piece of EPDM instead of all the lead work?
- suppose we redid just the valley, in say EPDM instead of lead. Is this feasible without touching the existing slates?
Thanks in advance for your advice! Any roofers serving the Clapham area wanting to take a look and quote for fixing it are also most welcome.
Cheers
Stephen
View media item 51338View media item 51339
The devil is in the detail . Apart from that it looks like a good one . NigeForest 
