In article ,
wrote:
A friend has a leak through her roof. It is a 3-storey "town house" and
access is difficult, so we have not seen the source of the leak. She has
received an estimate from the only roofer who turned up. The estimate
states that a weld on the leadwork has failed, so the leadwork will be
resealed and the whole area covered with bitumen (or as the roofer puts
it, "bitchman"). I've never heard of bitumen (or "bitchman") being
applied over leadwork, and it seems to me that once the bitumen is
applied there will be no way of telling whether the leadwork has been
sealed properly, or at all. Would anyone like to advise or comment,
please?

As has been said, a decent roofer will take pics of any problems and allow
you to have them. So easy these days there's no excuse not to.

I'd say welding lead is uncommon. Soldering it being so easy. But unless
pretty fancy, most joints are of an overlapped type to allow for
expansion, etc. But repairing lead with gunge sort of defeats the whole
point of it.

Leadwork is usually done by a specialist member of a roofing team. And
that would apply to repairs too.

It's all too easy to slap on some gunge as a temporary repair - which can
last for some time. Snag being some do just that but charge for a proper
repair.

Sadly, with roofs often being inaccessible, cowboys are common.

--
*Why isn't 11 pronounced onety one? *

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.