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Hi everyone, I've recently had a flat roof recovered. It was a felted roof and I had it redone with EPDM rubber.
The house is a 1960's semi-detached dormer bungalow with flat roof dormers. The roofs are designed with a pitch towards the house, so the water is suppose to run back towards the house and then off the dormer roof at either side, to run down the main roof. The situation is made a bit more complicated by the fact the next door property has at some time had their side of the roof re-done so the slope runs towards the front of the house, with a gutter along the facia.
Unfortunately, over time the roof has developed a dip towards the middle, and this causes rainwater to pond up. I did inform the contractor of this, and considering he was over-boarding the existing decking with OSB, that it might be an idea to check the slope and put some battens or tapers under to take out any dips.
This was last summer and when the rain came later that year it became apparent that the water ponding issue was worse than ever. So much so that water is now dripping over the front edge of the facia. Whilst this sounds trivial its actually incredibly annoying as the dripping water makes a surprisingly loud noise on the lead flashing below the dormer cladding. It's dripping right near the join between next door, and is loud enough that my neighbour is sleeping with earplugs. Weird thing is, when I've been up myself the depth of standing water seems to be far more than it ever was - its almost like they have managed to raise the level at the back, where the water is meant to drain off.
When I've tackled the contractor about this he said it was due to the roof slope being incorrect and suggested fitting a gutter on the front edge (at extra cost). I'm not too happy about this as I feel he should have checked the roof pitch before nailing down the OSB sheets on the existing decking. At this point it wouldn't have been too big of a job to fix any slope issue.
Worse still there appears to be a water leak into next doors house, near the join. Its not coming in mine and I'm not sure why but we've proved its this standing water getting blown over the ridge between the two roofs, which looks like its been put in to bridge the two different slopes. I can only think that nothing is getting in my side because its getting blown over this ridge between roofs - we proved the leak next door by swishing the standing water around with a brush.
I got him back about this leak next doors, and although he didn't believe us, he did raise the height of this dividing ridge. Since then next door have seen no more water get in, but we are giving it a few more weeks to be sure. Obviously I feel responsble for the damage to next doors ceiling and have assured them I'll make good this damage whatever happens. I told the contractor this and he simply looked at me as though as was stupid. To be honest, provided this leak has occured since he worked on the roof then I think he should cover the repairs to next doors ceiling. I've not put this too him yet, until I'm sure that his fix around the join has cured the leak.
I do apologise for such a long post, but really I wanted to see what other people think
1) Should the contractor check flat roof pitch before recovering, or is it acceptable to just re-cover and hope for the best? The trouble is, because its so far out I do feel like the only real fix is to get someone else in to rip off the whole lot, and redo it all with tapers and battens to get the level correct. Which means the money paid to the first contractor would be total waste.
2) Should the contactor cover repairs to next doors ceiling, if water has got in due to his work on my roof?
Thank you
B
The house is a 1960's semi-detached dormer bungalow with flat roof dormers. The roofs are designed with a pitch towards the house, so the water is suppose to run back towards the house and then off the dormer roof at either side, to run down the main roof. The situation is made a bit more complicated by the fact the next door property has at some time had their side of the roof re-done so the slope runs towards the front of the house, with a gutter along the facia.
Unfortunately, over time the roof has developed a dip towards the middle, and this causes rainwater to pond up. I did inform the contractor of this, and considering he was over-boarding the existing decking with OSB, that it might be an idea to check the slope and put some battens or tapers under to take out any dips.
This was last summer and when the rain came later that year it became apparent that the water ponding issue was worse than ever. So much so that water is now dripping over the front edge of the facia. Whilst this sounds trivial its actually incredibly annoying as the dripping water makes a surprisingly loud noise on the lead flashing below the dormer cladding. It's dripping right near the join between next door, and is loud enough that my neighbour is sleeping with earplugs. Weird thing is, when I've been up myself the depth of standing water seems to be far more than it ever was - its almost like they have managed to raise the level at the back, where the water is meant to drain off.
When I've tackled the contractor about this he said it was due to the roof slope being incorrect and suggested fitting a gutter on the front edge (at extra cost). I'm not too happy about this as I feel he should have checked the roof pitch before nailing down the OSB sheets on the existing decking. At this point it wouldn't have been too big of a job to fix any slope issue.
Worse still there appears to be a water leak into next doors house, near the join. Its not coming in mine and I'm not sure why but we've proved its this standing water getting blown over the ridge between the two roofs, which looks like its been put in to bridge the two different slopes. I can only think that nothing is getting in my side because its getting blown over this ridge between roofs - we proved the leak next door by swishing the standing water around with a brush.
I got him back about this leak next doors, and although he didn't believe us, he did raise the height of this dividing ridge. Since then next door have seen no more water get in, but we are giving it a few more weeks to be sure. Obviously I feel responsble for the damage to next doors ceiling and have assured them I'll make good this damage whatever happens. I told the contractor this and he simply looked at me as though as was stupid. To be honest, provided this leak has occured since he worked on the roof then I think he should cover the repairs to next doors ceiling. I've not put this too him yet, until I'm sure that his fix around the join has cured the leak.
I do apologise for such a long post, but really I wanted to see what other people think
1) Should the contractor check flat roof pitch before recovering, or is it acceptable to just re-cover and hope for the best? The trouble is, because its so far out I do feel like the only real fix is to get someone else in to rip off the whole lot, and redo it all with tapers and battens to get the level correct. Which means the money paid to the first contractor would be total waste.
2) Should the contactor cover repairs to next doors ceiling, if water has got in due to his work on my roof?
Thank you
B
