Lead or felt finish??

[kopper87]

Hi all, we recently had a leak on our flat roof kitchen extension and had a few roofers over.

Apparantly its due to the previous owners of the house installing flashband to finish the roof (where the roof meets the house wall) and this has come loose.

Some of the roofers weve had over suggest that finishing it off using felt would be a better solution to using lead?

Oddly enough, theres a roofer that can start the work this week and has said it'll cost £300 for either a felt or lead finish..

Any thoughts? Whats better, felt or lead finish?

 

[Burnerman]

Lead every time - at a price......!
Either flashing needs to be chased into the vertical wall though.
John

 

[kopper87]

Lead every time - at a price......!
Either flashing needs to be chased into the vertical wall though.
John

Hi John,

He's quoted £300 for either a lead finish or felt finish.. which is odd because lead is more expensive, but he's said its the same price because a felt finish would take longer.

He's also said hes going to use an angle grinder to get it in the wall etc.

Lead also lasts longer.. right?

 

[Burnerman]

Lead lasts much longer, and doesn't crack where the curves / folds are, therefore its much more permanent than felt.
The felt finish may take longer because it needs to be stuck to the underlying roof whereas the lead just needs to curve down the wall and be swept onto the roof.
Maybe he's making enough money on the job as it is!
An angle grinder is fine to do the chasing - just so long as the lead or felt can be tucked in.
John

 

[kopper87]

Lead lasts much longer, and doesn't crack where the curves / folds are, therefore its much more permanent than felt.
The felt finish may take longer because it needs to be stuck to the underlying roof whereas the lead just needs to curve down the wall and be swept onto the roof.
Maybe he's making enough money on the job as it is!
An angle grinder is fine to do the chasing - just so long as the lead or felt can be tucked in.
John

Hi John, thanks for the reply. lead sounds a much better job! What he also said was that theres a chance that lead will seep water in and felt is much better at stopping this? The only other concern I have is that as its on the back of the house , alot of sunlight goes onto the roof, which will in turn heat up the felt etc. Personally, I think hes trying to get out of doing lead!

 

[Alastairreid]

Dump the roofer who said the lead would leak at the joint in the wall.

 

[Burnerman]

Maybe your roofer has just priced up the lead
The felt will deteriorate with sunshine in due course (although its much better than it used to be) - the lead will be there as long as you are......if its chased and tucked into the wall, job done.
John