Full re-roof in Gosforth, Newcastle

The problem

The owners had been patching the same roof for three winters running. Tiles were slipping after every spell of bad weather, the ridge mortar had cracked and washed out along most of its length, and there were damp patches showing on the landing ceiling. When we got up for the survey the original sarking felt had perished completely — it had torn away at the eaves and was doing nothing to stop wind-driven rain getting into the loft.

At that point another repair would have been throwing good money after bad. The covering itself still had some life in it, but everything holding it on had reached the end. We recommended a full strip and re-roof rather than a fifth patch job, and gave them a fixed written quote covering scaffold, materials, labour and waste.

What we did

Scaffold went up on the Monday and the roof was stripped the same morning. With the covering off we could see the timbers properly — two rafter ends had rotted where water had been tracking down the wall plate, so those were cut back and sistered before anything else went on.

• Full strip of the existing tiles and perished felt
• Two rotten rafter ends cut out and replaced
• Proctor Roofshield high-performance breathable membrane fitted throughout
• New treated 50 x 25 battens, gauged to the tiles
• Grey Double Roman concrete roof tiles laid throughout
• Soakers and chimney flashings formed by hand on site
• Mechanically fixed dry ridge and dry hip system, ventilated at the apex
• New eaves ventilation to clear the loft moisture

The result

A watertight roof with no mortar left on it to crack out, ventilated properly so the loft dries rather than holding moisture, and a written workmanship guarantee behind it. The damp patch on the landing dried out over the following fortnight and hasn't returned.

The whole job took four days from scaffold up to site clear. The owners stayed in the house throughout — noisy for a couple of days, but at no point was the roof left open overnight.