I live in an old cottage, a row of 4, in the centre. The cottages are stone wall, slate roof, apart from the two centre ones which are mostly dormer topped flat roof.
over the last week there have been some fairly majr repairs done to the roof of one of the end cottages, lots of wood being replaced, big hole in the roof, that sort of thing.
a couple of years ago the opposite end fitted a dormer to the rear and made some adjustments to the front of theirs too, discovered that the gable end rafters needed replaced as they were rotten at the gutter end. The bit nearer ours was OK.
So, move on to today and the guys who are doing the work have advised we have their surveyor look at our property. our neighbour is having hers looked at, but they claim that the lintel for all 4 properties will be rotten.
Only evidence of slight moisture is a small brown patch on the living room ceiling. not got any worse in 5 years, no evidence of slumping.
Oh cottages were built in the 1850's, the end rooves were added to in 1905 and our dormers were constructed in the 1970's.
so, do we go with the surveyor, or do we find an independent, if there is such a thing? I'm concerned that the contractors surveyor will find 'likely evidence' wher in actual fact there is little evidence.
ta
Definitely get an independent in. Someone who surveys only and isn't affiliated with a contractor of any sort. We learned thus the hard way when buying our house. Mortgage provider appointed a surveyor who happened to be affiliated with a local damp-proofing specialist company. Unsurprisingly, he "found" lots of damp and rot needing urgent treatment to the tune of £7000, but luckily for us he could put us in touch with a local damp-proofing specialist company that could do the work.
Sometimes they don't even try to hide it.
Go to www.rics.org and find a chartered building surveyor. Look for the find a surveyor facility.
If you can do heights I'd ask the contractor (not the surveyor) to have a look FOC. Ask them to show you any problems that they find and take it from there, surveyor, roofer, etc
Wood tends to go from the ends unless there's a construction/maintenance problem
Make sure its not something these builders have done which has made your roof unsafe. Worth doing your own investigation. Ive lived in ancient houses and its surprising how flimsy the old beams were yet seemed to go on for ages if they weren't messed with.
surveyor had a lok at the neighbours property, found some rot at the other end and small woodworm infestation. nothing near our property.
I've had a half decent prod about, access is a bit limited being essentially a cottage with a big box on top where the roof should be, but the joists seem solid enough, I did put a hole in the ceiling while prodding that with a broom handle, but apologised to the wife, so that's OK.
Did notice while looking under the floorboards toward the edge of the roof that there were a few spots of light coming in, will probably plug them up with some expanding foam to stop resting gutter water blowing in when we get our typical scottish summer.
don't plug up too many gaps as they allow ventilation through the roof void. without ventilation you easily get damp patches. Sometimes when new works are added to old houses they didn't get the ventilation correct when adding lots of insulation, and then you get damp issues...
ok. I'll have a closer look to see where they are and leave the ones away from the guttering.
gonna get a gutter brush too, lots of leaf fall in this area.