Help ! Water pouring in through ceilings

[Cabbyfan]

Hi,

Looking for some urgent advice please ...

I have got to the point in a loft conversion where I have a new floor in Egger Protect and no roof. Problem is I have a lot of water coming in through the board joints dispite gluing and screwing it all down. I also went over the surface with silicone on every joint.

It is so bad I have had to rip down all my new ceilings and move out.

Looking at sealants that can be applied to wet / damp surfaces.

I'm also worried now that my new floor joints and the Egger Protect floor will be damaged by the amount of water.

Any advise gratefully received...

 

[flameport]

Egger Protect is a chipboard panel which is water resistant.
However any rain falling on it has to run off somewhere, and in this case the somewhere is your house below.

Sealants are not the answer. Installing the roof or some temporary covering is.

 

[Roger928]

and no roof

A roof is useful.

 

[Ian H]

You need one of those scaffold roofs ASAP.

If you sheet the floor it won't be able to dry.

 

[Cabbyfan]

Thanks for all the replies, much appreciated.

I can't get the new roof started because my builder says the architect plans along with SE calcs etc don't give enough detail to start construction on the roof. Something I really feel between the architect, SE and my builder someone should have pointed out before I took the original roof down !

Scaffold tenting it just isn't an option, my hope is I can use the steels as a temp frame to hang tarps and monoflex over to act as a tent until the design is worked out.

Hopefully this will prevent long term damage to my new floor / egger and timbers.

 

[HERTS P&D]

Your builder needs sacking, there should be a temporary roof covering.

Basic building rules, you don't remove a roof and leave it open to the elements.

Andy

 

[chappers]

abso-bloody-lutely. On the plus side, providing the egger was installed properly, it can be left exposed to the elements for at least 60 days.
How complicated is this roof if the SE has done the calcs then the archs drawings must be sufficient, assuming this is a plain flat roof.

 

[Cabbyfan]

Thanks guys.

My builder is only employed to build the gable and install steels. I took down the ceilings, installed the new floor/ egger protect. Looks like I didn't fit the Egger quite right as water is getting in through the joints in a lot of places.

Even though my steels are in I'm told I can't use them to run temporary sheeting or tarps over because they aren't fixed.

The front of the roof is standard pitched. The rear is 2 dormers with a flat section joining them, and it's the support of the timber holding up the rear of the flat bit that is now suddenly a problem.

Inside my house is a nightmare. It is basically raining inside, almost everything I own is soaking wet / ruined. The floorboards downstairs are soaked in every room, I have removed and skipped all the carpets and ceilings.

Not blaming my builder, more the architect for designing a roof that appears to lack essential construction detail.

 

[r896neo]

Borrow the roof of the builders home as a temporary fix.

On a serious note taking a roof off when you are not ready to start the new one immediately is absolutely crazy. Yes sometimes problems occur and a delay could happen but your situation is very frustrating I'm sure. Surely if you were not using a tent somebody advised you ceilings etc would need replaced and damage would occur. You don't build a roof in a day unless its prefabbed so some weather always gets in.

 

[Cabbyfan]

I wanted to leave most of the roof on but 3 days before steels went in builder said he needed all the roof off, the plan being to get steels in then begin on new roof straight away. It was only after I had taken the roof off he said having looked at the drawings that the new one couldn't be built with the information available.

That's why I'm so unhappy, I can't understand why it wasn't picked up before it got to roof off and steels in stage.

I'm literally stuck in horrendous rain with no way of temp covering it, all I can do is protect what possessions I have salvaged and hope nothing else gets ruined in the building structure. I'm already assuming the Egger is going to have to be replaced as its been wet for so long between the boards.

 

[Ian H]

You need something like a massive pond liner that will cover the floor and hang down the walls.

Is the roof fully off as in the loft floor is all that's there?

 

[HERTS P&D]

We need to see pictures.

Andy

 

[Cabbyfan]

Yup entire roof is off, basically there is the party wall and my new gable end. Plus 3 steels spanning.

 

[garyo]

Get some 4.8M battens lashed up with a £40 DPM over it...

 

[rssteve]

Lay a tarp down and hold the sides up then stick a submersible pump in the middle pumping the water out as it ponds.