Repair flat roof or have a sloping tiled roof put on?
 

There is a 4 ft extension to the ground floor of my house.
Its flat roof is leaking. It looks awkward to repair because the
extension has a parapet around it and the edge of the flat roof has
lead flashing all the way around, and because the outer edge, just
behind the parapet, is shaped into a trough to conduct the water along
to an outlet. Very fiddly indeed, I'd say. And the flashing is old and
I can already see a split in one place.

In order to avoid the repar, both now and in years to come, I'm
contempating having a sloping tiled roof put on, over the extension.
The dimensions (looking diectly downwards as in a plan drawing) ae
about, 5ft x 15ft. Does anyone have a clue what a builder would charge
to construct that? (So I can decide whether to DIM or just try to
repair the flat roof.)

Thanks,

John J

"JohnJ" wrote in message
...

There is a 4 ft extension to the ground floor of my house.
Its flat roof is leaking. It looks awkward to repair because the
extension has a parapet around it and the edge of the flat roof has
lead flashing all the way around, and because the outer edge, just
behind the parapet, is shaped into a trough to conduct the water along
to an outlet. Very fiddly indeed, I'd say. And the flashing is old and
I can already see a split in one place.

In order to avoid the repar, both now and in years to come, I'm
contempating having a sloping tiled roof put on, over the extension.
The dimensions (looking diectly downwards as in a plan drawing) ae
about, 5ft x 15ft. Does anyone have a clue what a builder would charge
to construct that? (So I can decide whether to DIM or just try to
repair the flat roof.)

Thanks,

John J


I honestly think repairing the roof will be the cheapest route to take. You say
you can already see a split. Is that on the felt or the lead flashing?

The lead flashing can be soldered back together easily with a flame and a bar or
slap pad.

Repairing a narrow split in the felt can be easily repaired with a small tin of
liquid felt and some green mineral chippings.

I don't know what the rest of your roof looks like, and if a full replacement or
re-modelling would make any difference. Maybe a photo would help. A free web
hosting site will let you do this.

On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 20:45:13 GMT, "BigWallop"
wrote:


John J


I honestly think repairing the roof will be the cheapest route to take. You say
you can already see a split. Is that on the felt or the lead flashing?

It's a split in the lead flashing. Yes, I suppose the split would be
the first thing to repair.

But the other problem is that the plywood under the felt is soft in
one area - maybe rotten, but definitely not walkable-on. you can see a
1ft-diameter impression in the felt where someone has trodden on the
rotten wood.

The lead flashing can be soldered back together easily with a flame and a bar or
slap pad.

Repairing a narrow split in the felt can be easily repaired with a small tin of
liquid felt and some green mineral chippings.

It's very hardt to tell if there's a leak in the felt. It is old felt
and has had stone choppings spread over it, and I myself added a layer
of black liquid flat-roof repair from B&Q, a few years ago, after
sweeping away most off the gravel..

I don't know what the rest of your roof looks like, and if a full replacement or
re-modelling would make any difference. Maybe a photo would help. A free web
hosting site will let you do this.

I may do this later. Thanks for the suggestion.

JohnJ

JohnJ wrote:

There is a 4 ft extension to the ground floor of my house.
Its flat roof is leaking. It looks awkward to repair because the
extension has a parapet around it and the edge of the flat roof has
lead flashing all the way around, and because the outer edge, just
behind the parapet, is shaped into a trough to conduct the water along
to an outlet. Very fiddly indeed, I'd say. And the flashing is old and
I can already see a split in one place.

In order to avoid the repar, both now and in years to come, I'm
contempating having a sloping tiled roof put on, over the extension.
The dimensions (looking diectly downwards as in a plan drawing) ae
about, 5ft x 15ft. Does anyone have a clue what a builder would charge
to construct that? (So I can decide whether to DIM or just try to
repair the flat roof.)


Flat roofs always go, and when they do they cause reall problems,
whereas a sloped roof at least just leaks a tiny bit.

I'd get a builder to look into a fully tiled one.

It sort of sounds like a couple of grand job to me..
Thanks,

John J

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
JohnJ wrote:

There is a 4 ft extension to the ground floor of my house.
Its flat roof is leaking. It looks awkward to repair because the
extension has a parapet around it and the edge of the flat roof has
lead flashing all the way around, and because the outer edge, just
behind the parapet, is shaped into a trough to conduct the water
along
to an outlet. Very fiddly indeed, I'd say. And the flashing is old
and
I can already see a split in one place.

In order to avoid the repar, both now and in years to come, I'm
contempating having a sloping tiled roof put on, over the
extension.
The dimensions (looking diectly downwards as in a plan drawing) ae
about, 5ft x 15ft. Does anyone have a clue what a builder would
charge
to construct that? (So I can decide whether to DIM or just try to
repair the flat roof.)


we nad a similar problem when we moved, our extension is about 66' x
8' the flat roof was leaking quite badly, i would of liked a pitched
roof fitting instead, however it needed planing permission so we
decided not to waitand had a grp flat roof fitted (=A32,100). The quote
for the pitched roof was =A34,400 this was by a 2 man operation in North
Yorkshire, as with most things i suppose the cost will vary greatly.
one point i didnt apreciate at the time was how a pitched roof would
have made access to the main house roof difficult