Scary looking binder

[mrbodge]

Stayed up last night with insomnia and when daylight broke decided to take a trip into the attic. It was raining and to my horror I found the roof is leaking around the skylight:

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• mrbodge
• 12 Jun 2010
• 1

The leaking appears to have been going on for some time an done
something nasty to the binder:

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• mrbodge
• 12 Jun 2010
• 1

Does this need steel plates bolted to it or something? Is that wet rot appearing? Yikes!

Advice anyone? Please don't say call the pro's my bank is empty and I can barely afford materials (tho maybe house insurance will cover something like that if it's as scary as it looks).

And what's the unidentified crawling object?

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• mrbodge
• 12 Jun 2010
• 1

 

[joinerjohn]

Dunno about the binder, but the unidentified crawling object looks like some sort of spider. Perhaps a clearer picture would help, or maybe the British Entomological Society could identify it.

 

[ladylola]

Looks alot like staining from rusting fittings rather than rot to me and you should be able to get away with it. Is the timber soft and crumbly or still firm? If it is then it looks like replacement . Wet rot will not survive if you take away its sourch of water anyway so the first thing to do is to sort out the leak which is probably flashing failure. Treating the timber assumeing it's still sound won't do it any harm, but as I say the prioterty is to sort out the leak.

 

[gregers]

dont look like rot to me either,do you have enough ventilation in the attic?

as already said stop the leak 1st,treat it with some kind of timber preserver and keep a close eye on the timber/s.

 

[mrbodge]

Looks alot like staining from rusting fittings rather than rot to me and you should be able to get away with it. Is the timber soft and crumbly or still firm? If it is then it looks like replacement . Wet rot will not survive if you take away its sourch of water anyway so the first thing to do is to sort out the leak which is probably flashing failure. Treating the timber assumeing it's still sound won't do it any harm, but as I say the prioterty is to sort out the leak.

When it was raining it was soft and easy to push about a bit. Now it's been literally sun backed dry it's probably the hardest timber in the place, maybe getting them wet repeatedly then sun baking them dry toughens them up! There's no way that needs replacing. Cheers so much I was real scared.

 

[mrbodge]

dont look like rot to me either,do you have enough ventilation in the attic?

Excessive ventilation in the attic.

as already said stop the leak 1st,treat it with some kind of timber preserver and keep a close eye on the timber/s.

As soon as I finish this coffee.