My roof leaks.
When the wind is coming from the North and its raining heavily there's a steady drip from one spot.
House is about 45 years old, and the leaking part of the roof has a pitch of 20 degrees.
Tiles are concrete.
Local roofing company thinks that the problem is that the tiles were never rated to that low a pitch and are now at the end of their life. Old tiles off, new tiles on.
Before I shell out enough money to buy several bikes, what are my options?
My house is not much older than yours. I also have concrete tiles. I ended up replacing most of the tiles and also the drip tray below them. I had real problems finding a roofer who could do the job all the local guys were booked up many months in advance. I had to get guys from the central belt to come up to Fort William There's been no problem with the roof in the two months since it was done but the guys who did it didn't inspire confidence. So my advice is don't delay and prepare for a high bill. I paid between 2 -3 e bikes.
I paid between 2 -3 e bikes.
Yes, that's about what I'm being quoted. Fortunately I don't actually need that many e-bikes.
It's a vaulted ceiling and currently the only insulation in there is some token loose rockwool shoved in the gap. So it might be an opportunity to finally fix that properly at the same time and not have that side of the house quite so cold in the winter.
Is there any way for you to get into the roof to see what's actually going on? Getting up on the outside of the roof (or close enough to see what's going on) would also be an idea. I guess the options are either there's a hole of some sort; or it's soaking through the tiles.
Either way, get a second opinion and quote. If there is a hole patching/ replacement of the surrounding tiles may be feasible; but it does sound like replacement, by someone you trust, is the best bet.
If it's any consolation, we just paid a Hyundai i20n for a new flat roof area (in copper) and internal gutter (actually runs through the attic, in copper) solution. There's definitely some peace of mind from the premium we paid, plus the guy's 30 year guarantee...
20 degrees is quite a low pitch for concrete tiles, but some are rated down to 17.5 degrees IIRC. Maybe try to find out what you've got and check. If you post up a pic someone on here might be able to identify them for you.
The thing is that even if water is being blown under the tiles it should simply run down the roofing felt/membrane underneath - so there is probably an issue with that.
Old roofing felt tends to rot when exposed whilst modern fabrics are way better.
As it's a vaulted ceiling I presume you can't see what's going on from underneath but remember that the water could be getting in higher up and then running down to where it can get it - it might be [just] knackered ridge tiles which would be an easier/cheaper fix.
Re the new insulation: Just remember that you need to maintain the minimum gap between the ceiling and the roofing 'felt'.
Get someone up there to see where the water's getting in and either repair that or replace the lot. Start with obviously broken tiles, chimneys and other areas of flashing.
Concrete tiles should last more than 45 years, but not long enough to make re-use viable
Yup, what you've got there is a roof. Good jahhhb! 👍 🤣
The slats definitely have some water soak, but many of them look OK. You could perhaps get away with replacing a small patch of affected tiles - until the next old tiles go.
The leak comes in from right at the top of the roof.
But these tiles are actually further down than that.
I wonder if there's a leak in that membrane at or near the ridge line.
I wonder if there's a leak in that membrane at or near the ridge line.
Well yes.... water doesn't tend to go uphill so, as I mentioned before, it could well be a ridge tile issue. That said the two lowest battens on the right look like they've been getting wet.
(Of course not all the water getting past the tiles is nec. getting through the membrane, so you could have a leak further up* and battens showing evidence of extended water exposure lower down).
I would have thought you need to uncover more higher up.
* Additionally, water getting past the membrane will not immediately show in the room below - it may run down the top of the plasterboard until it can find a joint/exit route.
Edit: Is the water blowing in from the verge [edge of the tile at the gable end] which should be fairly sealed. Maybe possible if it only leaks in one wind direction.
It only leaks when the wind is from just the right northerly direction.
Which might indicate that it's being blown in.
Yup, check the ridge. If it's a traditional system a small gap in the mortar could cause issues if the membrane has failed or doesn't overlap properly. Relatively cheap install for a dry ridge system rather than repair. There's a lot of moss between those tiles where water could build up and track underneath the tiles.
There's a lot of moss between those tiles where water could build up
That was my first thought on seeing the photo. I get up on our roof (built 1977 or so) with a yard brush every couple of years to try and sweep the worst of it off when it's dry.
my first port of call would be removal of the moss which in my experience will prevent water running off smartly during rain and in some instances where it has grown under the tiles allowing water to wick in. Long term it will help to saturate the tiles and or substrate which then becomes more prone to frost damage.
when you clean off the moss you may find a damaged tile that was otherwise hidden. On my old house with similar pitch i would walk up with a stiff brush and scraper on a dry day and clear it off. After rain it would then dry very quickly whereas before it would be sodden for ages or even days with plenty of opportunity for water to leach about and under tiles. I also found a couple of tiles that had been botch repaired with mastic
In my experience most roofers will generally want to remove all tiles regardless of whether they are reusable, and then replace with new as its an easily quantifiable job - they rock up, erect scaff, strip off straight into a skip, new tiles arrive on site , they get handballed up and hung. Job done. So you may need to find a different sort of roofer who is happy to investigate and footle about
on my current house i knew the existing membrane on the front elevation was knackerd so we stripped off all the slate tiles, removed the membrane, repaired any rot or damage to the sarking, put a new breather membrane on then re slated with original slates. I probably lost 15 slates total during stripping. I'm not a roofer but we were able to strip and stack ready for putting back - it's not hard but is time consuming and a bit of a ball ache to redress slates which is why lots of roofers dont really want to do it