Wet rot help- unsure if recent repair is purely cosmetic

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AlDayrell

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Hello,

We had long standing water ingress from a slipped roof tile on a three story Victorian house. Eventually the lath and plaster was damaged and caved in- which was the first we knew of the problem! We've had it repaired but I'm concerned the work may be more cosmetic than structurally sound and I'd love some advice before it's plastered back up. Should new wood be secured to wood that's been badly damaged by wet rot? I would have thought the wet rot should be removed.

Image available here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/alexabeth/36923320310/in/dateposted-ff/
dateposted-ff
 
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AlDayrell, good evening, and as this is your first post in here, Welcome, loads of info from numerous posters, you choose what to follow.

Right.

From the image posted, it appears that there is a vertical piece of rotted timber that has been left [for whatever reason] in the wall?

There appears to be no rational for this bit of rot damaged timber to be left in place?

In "Old School" speak, the advice was that the rot damaged wood should be "cut back" about one meter from the damaged areas of timber, that includes the laths.

I for one would be questioning why that badly rotted vertical post was left in position?

Ken.
 
very good comments from Ken, and just to add, that sometimes, the wet rot can dry out, and then turn to dry rot. Hence the reason that it should be taken back a metre. No rotted would should be left in a job whatsoever. If you can't get the guys to redo it (and maybe it's not a good idea to get them back in), then best to find someone else that will do the job properly.
 
Thanks Ken and Doggit. I really appreciate your responses. We thought the same regarding the rotted wood that was left in place. Will question the roofer when/if he returns tomorrow. Given the quote we accepted, we had anticipated that he'd be doing more substantial work for the interior repair, to ensure all rotted wood was cleared and replaced.
 
The estimate said "repair to internal damaged ceiling inc plaster" as well as repair to roof. It sounds a bit vague but we had discussed removing all of the rotten wood prior to work commencing. It's involved scaffolding up to (or just higher than) third floor level for external works: replacing cracked tiles, a bit of re-pointing around the chimney, a few bricks replaced. Still, we thought it would be more labour intensive and aren't happy that it's amounted to about 2 days worth of work for 2k! I don't enjoy confrontation but am starting to feel as though we've been had. The joys of a large Victorian moneypit...

Thanks for the welcome, David. I anticipate I'll be on the forum more often as we begin to tackle one project after another.
 
Ah, did you take the first quote by any chance. But sometimes, this sort of work is high rate for experience, and the scaffold will have cost a few hundred at least, but taking out materials, it's still about £1200 (at least) for labour. So was it one guy, or two.
 
Not the first quote but we chose him based on a friend's recommendation. He had an assistant for about 3 hours one day. Scaffolding went up late July and we were assured work would be completed by 2nd week of August... bit frustrating that it's carried on so long. We do seem to have had a run of bad luck with the tradesmen we've appointed for various jobs.
 
Ha, a relative gave us a smudge stick to use over the house for this very reason. Our comeuppance for allowing it to sit on a shelf and collect dust ;) Smudging shall be first thing on the agenda tomorrow! Followed by Feng Shui.
 
Trust me, it works, but having said that, I've come across properties that can't be cleared, so best of luck.
 
looks like a chimney back gutter that had split ..There is No real reason to leave the rot there in that position.
Did they at least give a treatment drench?..
 
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