Roof Spreading affecting Studio over Garage

[HUDengineer]

Hi,

I'm looking at buying a house (with a few drawbacks of its' own), with a detached double garage with a studio room over it. The clay tile roof appears to be spreading, and I'm guessing the roof bracing may not be adequate. The design is such that the rafters run from the ridgeline to rest on a brick and block wall along the front and back edges of the garage, where the height of the wall is about 2 feet above the floor level of the studio. The front pitched roof has slid forwards about one inch (at the ends, perhaps 2" or more in the middle), taking the wall that it is resting on with it, so the brickwork over the garage doors is bowed out and leans out forwards, and is cracked at multiple points across the width of the garage and around the corners. Near the apex, on the gable end, a gap in the mortar bed that the end tiles are set in shows how the roof has slipped that inch from about the third row of tiles downwards, and the ridge-line dips between each end of the ridge.

Apart from possibly "collar ties" concealed by the pasterboard ceiling which is only about 18" across, there is no other good lateral tie, being a usable space. There may be some vertical timbers that link the rafters to the floor beams (set near the brick wall and about 2 ' further in, creating an internal studio wall about 3' high), but nothing to stop the spreading load, and I'm pretty sure there is no load bearing ridge beam. I've tried to find some plans, but to no avail.

Any ideas how expensive a structural survey will be, given that holes will have to be made to see the construction, and how much to budget for getting it fixed, while still retaining a useful space not punctuated by tie-bars?

The vendor, who has only ever rented the property out since it was constructed seems disinterested/unhelpful.

Thanks,

Andy

 

[^woody^]

£500 for a survey, £150 for attendance of a builder to open up, £500-£1k for design work

Remedial costs could be anything

 

[HUDengineer]

£500 for a survey, £150 for attendance of a builder to open up, £500-£1k for design work

Remedial costs could be anything

Thanks. We will have to think whether we are that keen. Partly, the cost will depend on whether we just stop it sliding any further, or try to rebuild it properly, I suppose.

We have already spent over £1000 with searches and studying the management company clauses for the shared driveway maintenance that includes a huge Horse Chestnut tree that brushes the front of the house, shading it all summer long, making it even more gloomy in summer than winter. We had already realised the house is modern Timber Frame with tiny windows, that it has oil central heating (boiler in the kitchen), that cluster flies gather in the loft, that the leaking En-Suite may have been ignored by the tenants for six or seven years, potentially ruining the timber beneath it. Then there is the tiny garden, the kenneled dog just over the fence, and so much else less than ideal. The mould in the bedrooms, due to inadequate, shoddy, loft insulation is about the only thing we are confident we can fix. The neighbours say their build was shoddy, and we gather that isn't what you want to hear for timber frame, but we tell ourselves that people must seldom be pleased with a new build from the word go.

Does buying a house have to be like this? Others have asked us if it is really the house we want, and it isn't. It really isn't special and if there was anything else close to what we want, we would be buying it...

 

[joe-90]

Why bother with a surveyor when you can get a quote off a builder to fix it for nothing?

£500 quid for 20 minutes? No thanx.

 

[^woody^]

Why bother with a surveyor when you can get a quote off a builder to fix it for nothing?

£500 quid for 20 minutes? No thanx.

That's all very well if the builder knows about structural matters, and the various influencing factors and the various options for remedial work

Often he wont, and will just recommend what he did on his previous similar job which was a few 4x2's spanning across, and then a load of other easier work to tart it up because it's in his interests to get as much out of the job as possible

The OP can pay for a professional cost-effective design, or pay for someone else's guess and a lot more in build costs and an inferior end product

 

[joe-90]

Are you saying that Nosey and Old un couldn't sort out a bit of a roof?

 

[^woody^]

Thanks. We will have to think whether we are that keen.

From the rest of your post, it sounds like you should not be even looking at this place, as it is not what you want

Ideally, you should be deciding and listing exactly what you want from a property and then assessing each property against your requirements. Few properties will meet them all, so then you may need to compromise or just keep looking

That repair to the garage may not be as bad as you think, so you just have to decide if its the only thing putting you off and if its worth investigating

 

[^woody^]

Are you saying that Nosey and Old un couldn't sort out a bit of a roof?

Old 'un couldn't because he would talk the OP to death and get kicked off site

Noseall could, after a few posts here

Seriously, I did say "That's all very well if the builder knows about structural matters"

 

[joe-90]

Yeah but £500 quid is way over the top. All he needs is a good builder. It's not a shopping centre.

 

[^woody^]

It might not be £500, it might be £50.

The point is, whoever looks at it needs to know about everything he is looking at, and be able to decide which of the many potential solutions is the most practical and economic, and what actually needs to be done and what can be happily left alone

It should not be someone who can have a guess and will then give a handsome quote based on his guess

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Your posts say more about you than anyone else Joe!

 

[RonnyRaygun]

It might not be £500, it might be £50.

It should not be someone who can have a guess and will then give a handsome quote based on his guess

I'd guess it needs a ridge beam. That'll be £500 please

 

[joe-90]

"£500 for a survey, £150 for attendance of a builder to open up, £500-£1k for design work"

I can't see fifty quid bandied around in your first reply woody.

 

[joe-90]

Your posts say more about you than anyone else Joe!

A man of the people with common sense and a penchant for fair play. I'm gratified Freddie.

 

[HUDengineer]

Rang NHBC to see what their advice was, and spoke to a helpful technical guy. He said to ask the vendor a few direct questions before spending any money as a prospective purchaser. Like, has it been claimed for already, and was it a cash settlement? He suggested I ask why they have done nothing to arrest it or correct it, but I suspect they simply have not been checking the property condition. He said it was quite common for people anticipating selling to take a cash settlement, and then hope it doesn't get picked up in the survey, or hope that the buyer assumes he can get it done under warranty, if there is still a current warranty on the property.

He also said that I shouldn't under-estimate the possible scope of the work, and indicated a rather impressive £15 to £20k, if the roof is structurally flawed, and that I really should leave it to the seller to get it done before resuming the purchase, if I really am that keen...