Please help bad GRP which has cost £7000!!

[GemJ]

Hi,

I’m looking for advice. We have had a terrible GRP roof done on a kitchen extension. There are holes, rips, parts which have no coating. You can see all the matting.

The company have admitted the faults. They claim they will fix them but I don’t want them to just patch it up! Has anyone got any ideas?

I’m desperate, we paid £7000 which was all out savings to have this done after the roof that was put on by the original owners was the wrong one.

 

[Notch7]

Welcome to the forum, I am sorry to hear your problems

Why was the previous roof the wrong one? Did it suffer condensation or something

What have the new roofers done? - did they do total new roof, timbers insulation, OSB boarding and GRP?

Where did you get the roofers was it checkatrade or similar?

How is the roof joined to the house?
Do you know what make of fibreglass they used? - some brands aren't designed for roofing and have no flexibility.

I'm not sure it's a right off, GRP can be cut, ground off and overcoated. My concern would be the finish shows a lack of experience and they might mean incorrect construction.

GRP is not easy to apply, it's awfully sticky and messy. It is also ruined by rain or water before it's dry

 

[GemJ]

Thanks for your response, it’s appreciated. It’s CureIt resin.

We went with what we thought was a reputable company, fully checked, lots of good reviews on Yell and has done a lot of work in our local area.

It was OB3 18mm board from memory (may have got the name wrong)

The original extension was built with a pitch of 9C and had large tiles on it which we were told was the reason for all of the leaks. It’s brick built.

Unfortunately the roof has leaked from us moving in and nothing was picked up on the survey.

I should have known it wasn’t right after he chased me 17 times the day he finished for the rest of the payment. I had paid £3,000 upfront.

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Don't pay them fully, until you are entirely satisfied. That job looks very amateur indeed, I hope the unseen parts are better. I would be tempted to get someone to do a report on the workmanship, before considering paying up as it does look so badly done.

 

[Notch7]

Thanks for your response, it’s appreciated. It’s CureIt resin.

We went with what we thought was a reputable company, fully checked, lots of good reviews on Yell and has done a lot of work in our local area.

It was OB3 18mm board from memory (may have got the name wrong)

The original extension was built with a pitch of 9C and had large tiles on it which we were told was the reason for all of the leaks. It’s brick built.

Unfortunately the roof has leaked from us moving in and nothing was picked up on the survey.

I should have known it wasn’t right after he chased me 17 times the day he finished for the rest of the payment. I had paid £3,000 upfront.

reputable companies dont chase for the money when the job is left like that

either youve had cowboys in or youve had a reputable company who has used inexperienced or badly trained staff.


no tiles can cope with a 9 deg pitch -although tiles can be done on very shallow roofs but it requires a different roof structure.

 

[Rufus Raintight]

Some questions;

Q1. Roughly how big is the roof?
Q2. Did the roofers say they were trained to apply Cure-it or indeed any GRP system?
Q3. Can or did they provide a training certificate?
Q4. Did they offer you a guarantee?
Q5. Did you pay them all the money?

 

[oldbutnotdead]

Yes I'd be interested on the roof size and what exactly they did.
First one- CureIt guarantee the materials but if they did send a rep round he'd take one look and walk away- the pics show poor and incorrect application.
Pic 1- raggy bandage on a trim. Looks rubbish but not the end of the world, the raggy mat should have been ground off before topcoating but unlikely to cause any problems.
Pic 2- too much topcoat, probably dolloped on to cover a gap or a bit of mat full of holes due to lack of support. Grind off, relaminate, redo topcoat. This will always cause a visual difference so price reduction would be in order.
Pic 3. If there's a trim under that lot then again not likely to leak. Grind back, relaminate as necessary, redo topcoat, note as above regarding visual difference/price reduction
Pic 4 - not sure what i'm seeing there
Pic 5 - excess mat poking above a trim. Should have been ground off before topcoat. See above for repair requirements
Pic 6- looks like they've tried to mat over the top of an expansion joint trim. Odd place to put such a trim but if it is a proper grp trim then again unlikely to leak but clearly shows the installers had no idea what they were doing & were much more comfortable with torched felt.
Grind off, re topcoat.
If you've already paid them then you have to give them an opportunity to rectify the work. Get them to detail exactly what they have fitted (is the deck 18mm OSB? Is it T & G or square edged? Is it screwed or nailed to the joists? What screws/nails were used at what spacings. What trims were used at what locations- lengths and types. What weight mat was used? What date and batch codes were on the resin and topcoat? Get all this in writing (they won't know what dates were on the resin and topcoat cos no-one ever looks or cares, for aerospace the dates are critical, for rooves as long as it goes off it'll be fine. If they give you dates and codes, verify them with CureIt, when they turn out to be rubbish thats more ammo for you if you have to go Small Claims).
Prob won't cheer you up but the GRP roofing course I did reckoned £60/sq m (that was 2013 so more like £100/sq m now) as a guide...