Potential rotten beam / sodden roofing felt

[Mattsw17]

Evening all,

We’ve had a long-standing problem with the gutter not draining away the rain fast enough at the top of the run, resulting in water pooling and the over-spilling down the wall.

This has been resolved by the installation of an additional down-pipe at the top end of the run (not shown in any of the photos), however the company we used has stated that the beam nearest to the wall has started to rot, the roof has dropped in that corner, and that the roofing felt is sodden.

The felt was installed in 2014, and was only laid under the first run of tiles along the full length of the roof, due to work that was undertaken on the wall below. The roofing company suggested the two solutions were either to undertake a local repair (quoted as £1,000) or replace the roof.

I thought I’d post on here to see what people thought, and whether by trimming the roofing felt back (it is currently resting in the gutter) that would help prevent the felt from absorbing any further water and it would dry out over the summer?

Thanks in advance,

Matt

 

[datarebal]

There is a cut tile against the wall which is fine but the flashing appears to not cover the tile enough. keep in mind you have the gutter from above and the valley pouring water down there. try diverting the water away from the wall.
Also, on another note the new section of breather underlay fitted doesnt look as though its under the original felt above

And tile headlap looks wrong

 

[Mattsw17]

Thanks Datarebal,

Two questions:

1) Would you recommend just removing the new section of breather underlay?
2) When you say the tile headlap looks wrong do you mean there should be more of a overlap from the tile above?

Matt

 

[bobasd]

have you been in your loft lately - surely water is entering the building? the rotten "beam" will be clearly visible from inside the loft.

in short, i'd suggest getting a scaff up and having a semi-roof strip at the gutters, eaves, the abutments and the valleys.
the gutter falls and outlets need changing .
and as above, the abutment cover flashing will need re-doing with much more tile cover provided and much of the underfelt changed and/or re-arranged.

it would be a chance to change the lead valley for a modern GRP dry valley.

its bad enough when a dormer valley discharges down the dormer cheek but you have a main roof discharging into a badly fixed gutter that then shoots the discharge across
a short lead catch piece - a very bad design.
thing is, the gutter seems to be discharging under the lead piece.

the bottom of the felt should be seen lapping into the gutter - yours doesn't. possibly, a major cause of water coming down the brickwork face.

 

[datarebal]

1) Would you recommend just removing the new section of breather underlay?
2) When you say the tile headlap looks wrong do you mean there should be more of a overlap from the tile above?

TBH Matt
Headlap yes i am saying there is very little over lap. Loking at the pictures the first tile course has maybe 50 mm ish
The strip of breather felt would have been better lapped under the original. but even then its a temp fix.

I would strip the roof back to rafters
If the rafter/plate are rotted the replace or repair
Fit new underlay and underlay support trays
Increase the flashing where it has insufficient cover over the tiles
Retile the roof increasing headlap
Re align the gutter to run away from the valley (looks like zinc)
Fit a short down pipe to empty into the lower gutter rather than flood the tiled roof
Might even be a good idea to change the lower gutter to a deepflow

 

[Nige F]

have you been in your loft lately -.

It's a good idea to check out the loft, could be anything slouching up there.

 

[Mattsw17]

Thanks guys for all the advice,

I have been up in the loft but couldn't see a noticeable difference in the beams but it looks like I'll be heading up there this weekend...then look to get it fixed as per your comments.

Thanks once again - Matt