Recommend a roofer Sth Dublin?

Ellechim

Hi there,

can anyone recommend a roofer, we are near Deansgrange in Sth Dublin.

Have had repeated problems with a leaking roof at the back of the house since we moved in 7 years ago - have had it fixed four separate times and each time the leak comes back. Last time was in November/December when we had tiles taken off, felting replaced and tiles put back. It started leaking with the bad rain a few weeks ago but no water actually coming through but today we have puddles in our bathroom.

Would really appreciate a recommendation of a good roofer - needless to say we are quite hacked off about this esp as we had the bathroom painted about a month ago and now the ceiling in the bathroom is quite badly stained.

If anyone wants the name of the builder who did the shoddy work last November so that they can avoid him I'd be glad to pass it on :mad:

Thanks in advance

muffler

PMs all the way lads please.

RKQ

Is it low pitched roof?
Could you post a photo just to see what the problem could be.
4 repairs in 7 years is alot!

Ellechim

Thanks RKQ, inot sure what you mean by a low pitched roof - it's a slated roof over the second storey of the house at the back of the house. We don't have a ladder high enough to get up ourselves and look, so no photo I'm afraid - our 'evidence' is amount of water coming through the roof into the attic coming through into the bathroom.

The first three repairs we had done were to the area where the roof joins the chimney: the fourth repair (last November actually took off most of the slates, replaced about 50% of the felt (it transpires there was a large rip in the felt from beneath the chimney) and re-tiled. However, given where the water is coming it it appears that this whole area is leaking......That repair was by a general 'builder' not a specialist roofer. He had told us he was proficient in roofing, however, he also told us he was proficient in several other areas which we had him do and have had problems with everything he did :rolleyes:

I'm currently 9 mths pregnant so can't get in the attic to see, my DH has been up there so this is secondhand......

I'm wondering whether we have to go so far as to take off all the slates, refelt the whole thing and then reslate. We are a semi-d, so that would obviously affect our neighbours too, if we had to do that.

Or, whether we have any recourse to this guy who did the work last November (I should say this chap has done extensions on three other houses on our road with great feedback, it just seems to be that we've had problems).

We don't expect our insurance to cover this one either as we'd expect they will put it down to poor maintenance (even though we had to re-plasterboard a large part of the bathroom and kitchen ceiling below bathroom due to the leaking.......

Any advice most gratefully received.......

RKQ

Hi Ellechim, you are very welcome.
I find it hard to answer your questions without a photo, as there may be an underlining problem, that might be visible in a photo of the rear of your house, taken from the ground.

Most semi-d's in south Dublin would have a concrete tiled roof, average pitch of 30 - 40 degrees. It seems your rear extension might have a lower pitch? ( I am only assuming this on the information given)

PM me with a photo, if this helps.

It does seem strange that you have had a lot of repairs to this roof in the past. Unfortunately I can not understand the problem, from the info supplied.

It could be caused by a shallow pitch or a flashing problem, maybe at or around the chimney. ( Is the chimney built from brick?)

Has the roofer been informed of the continuing problems?

Ellechim

Thanks RKQ, yes, it is a lower pitch, I'm not sure exactly what it is. The house originally was a dormer bungalow and was extending upwards at the back in the eighties. The chimney is brick.

We are going to try to get a professional roofer to fix it this time and see if that works. Previously we had water coming in through the flashing around the chimney, chanelling down the felt and then out through the bathroom window and in through the cavity wall into the kitchen below. The previous repairs fixed this for a while but not completely.

With the repair last November it transpired that the felt (probably from several years of leakage) was totally rotten/ripped coming down in a channel from the chimeny. So, that is why a very large piece of it was replaced - from the chimeny down to the edge of the roof - and the tiles put back.

It would appear now from what may be happening is that water is getting in under the edges of this new felt (I'm surmising) and now coming through directly. The attic is apparently soaking wet. Talking to my DH about it we reckon the best thing to do is to take off all the slates at the back of the house, refelt completely, make sure everything is sealed appropriately and then reslate. We will get a 'professional' roofing company to do this - we certainly won't have this chap back. We had him do several pieces of work last year - what should have taken two weeks took 7 and every single thing he did has had to be redone or is still unfinished and he is not/does not turn up and while we might have recourse to him financially (ie to make good what he's done) we certainly don't need the hassle any more as he has been so unreliable. (he laid a patio that isn't flat, he put in windows and didn't put them in square, he put in a partition wall and didn't use our dimensions, he laid a floor which is buckling, he put in doors which my DH has had to take down and plane, etc etc......he was recommended, he has done several pieces of work on our road but nothing he did was done well in our house for some reason)......

Anyway, thanks for the mails - part of the problem may well be that the pitch is too shallow however I think the best course of action now is to get the whole thing redone.

If anyone has any what the costs of this might be (it's a 3 bed semi) so we know what to expect I'd appreciate it.

Thanks

M