Some time ago I posted about my damp 1928 detached house. What seems
like dozens of "experts" have looked at the place and a consensus
emerged that one of the problems was the roof verges at two of the three
gable ends where the tiles are cemented directly onto some wood valences
(I think that's the term used). The recommendation is sealant on the
wood followed by cement board followed by mortar followed by the tiles.

Accordingly I asked for three estimates and after a bit of negotiating I
went with XYZ Co.

I sent the following rejection e-mail to one of the losers, ABC Co:

"Thank you for your quotation. I have decided to go with XYZ so
unfortunately I will not be proceeding further.

Sorry.

Regards"

I got the following rather gnomic reply:

"Thankyou for letting us know that our quotation was of no use.XYZ are a
good well established business and will offer a good service to you.
I had already spoken to our building side of our business(ABC est
1953)and have driven past.We have come to the conclusion that your
problem possibly lies elswhere due to certain building ideas of the
1930s ,however good luck with your roof verges, but i felt that i
should inform you of our experience and investigations in regard to
these matters.
kind regards,"

Is this just sour grapes (I never said the quotation was "of no use"), a
(successful) attempt to sow FUD or were there really "certain building
ideas of the 1930s" which led to problems and if so what are they?.

The lower storey consists of a standard cavity wall with bare brick. On
top of this there is corbelling into an upper storey with a much smaller
cavity. This is rendered on three sides including the two problem sides.
Everybody has said the rendering looks OK, including ABC.

Another Dave