to ask what you'd do? condensation or damp, no one seems to know, no savings left and insurance won't help! really really depressed and need help!

[Fairylea]

We have lived in our house 3 years now. Homebuyer survey was fine. All good.

We have 2 dc.

As winter set in we noticed our bedroom light was fuzzing and going on and off even when switched off. On close inspection there was water slowly dripping from the rose.

We turned the trip switch off and duly called out several roofers and a loft insulation and damp specialist.

Everyone has told us different things. One roofer said roof needed repointing (£1200). One told us birds had got in and made holes. One said we have a metal bar running along inside the roof above our bedroom and the coldness of this was causing condensation in the light.

The loft specialist spent ages checking everything and said it was just condensation and our roof wasn't ventilated at all. He recommended vents at £240 which we did as this was also recommended on our survey so we thought it would be worth a try.

We asked for more roofers to quote but none came back to us (we are in south Norfolk.. rural).
We left it a few weeks for things to dry out incase that was it and got an electrician to replace our light fitting and check the others. He said all the others were fine.

Ours has been fine for a couple of weeks now and today we noticed its leaking again!

We now have no upstairs lights again. We don't know what to do. We don't feel we have anyone we can trust to tell us what's wrong and all the roofers keep saying different things. All were recommended and have trade qualifications.

We have no savings left due to a difficult time with other things going wrong (washing machine and oven broke all in one week and mum was poorly and spent a lot on hospital trips and visiting etc).... it would need a remortgage or loan or cc to fix anything.

What do we do ? I'm actually quite scared we have a massive massive problem somewhere and no one is picking up on it.

We do have condensation around the windows but we wipe this and use a tumble drier and ventilate by opening windows everyday.

My dds room had terrible black mould so we got rid of this and bleached everything.

But it's only our room with the water in light problem.

We can't get in the roof ourselves as the access is over high stairs and even if we could we wouldn't know what to look for.

Do we try and sell ... if we even could ? We would need to fix morally anyway.

I'm so so stressed.

What do we do ? Get more quotes obviously..... IF anyone will come out to us ????!!

Also, look at the cables and pipes. Water runs down them also.

Ok, sounded like a leaky roof to me. It's not wasted money to have your roof redone, when you sell it will be worth it believe me. I wouldn't do any temporary fixes. Probably hasn't helped your condensation problems either.

Firstly, you really really need to be able too get into your own loft. So get them to sort out a loft ladder at the same time. Leaking water tanks are really common, I've had one and so has my mum following a combi boiler installation. And you can insulate your loft properly too - very cheap (free if you get it from your energy company) and will make a big difference to how the house feels. also storage is AWESOME. Most insulation is nearly thick enough. We added space blanket to our lofts and the house immediately felt warmer.

It will be cheapest in terms of monthly repayments to get an extension on your mortgage, but if you think you can pay back a couple of hundred a month, it will be cheapest in terms of interest payable to do it on an interest free credit card. So you could take a part time job to cover that or go back to work temporarily.

Sorry for all the useless advice should have read through first

Hang on. You paid a surveyor to survey your house, they told you the roof was fine and it obviously wasn't. They will obviously tell you it's not their fault. Did you have a full survey done? Sounds like it if they took photos of the roof.

If so, you have a case against your surveyor. Do not take no for an answer.

Fairylea. Are you on a repayment mortgage? Could you go interest only for a while and use the remainder to pay off a loan for the roof repairs? Horrible situation you're in. I'll echo the others saying don't get a cc, a loan is a much cheaper way of borrowing money. Ccs charge somewhere in the region of 23% apr whereas a loan is about 8%. By all means use a cc for its interest free period. Tesco do one with 22 months interest free I think.

Thanks, I am going to take on a lot of your suggestions and investigate the homebuyer survey a little more too.

You're all very helpful and I am very grateful. I feel a bit like I'm shooting in the dark with it all so it's good to have somewhere to talk about it all.

The Tesco card is the one we applied for as it had the longest period of zero interest on purchases... this would be better than a loan with interest surely, or am I missing something? .... at the end of the zero interest we would do balance transfer to another card but hopefully we will have paid it off by then.

Our mortgage is repayment so going interest only may be an option. Thanks for this. I might ring them tomorrow for a chat.
We have ordered a ladder from amazon.

What a bloody nightmare it all is.

I have 3 roofers (all from recommend a trade type websites, which I suppose I have to trust within reason even though reviews could be faked hmmm) coming next week to give us quotes.

I have also arranged to have a look at two nurseries with the idea of going back to work. :( not that I want to... but we really need to build up a buffer and it's no different than a lot of people have to do everyday really. Just worried ds will be okay :(

What a lot to take in. All from a dripping light!

I'm still not entirely sure I even trust the surveyor from the insurance company ... !

But he is independent so surely he should be telling the truth? He gets paid regardless..... and he can't do the work so why would he lie? I just find it odd that our roof looks no different to our neighbours and as we are semi detached I am tempted to ask if there's is ok.... ?

If the roofers come back and say it doesn't need redoing what do I do then?

Do I trust them or am I just going to be putting the problem on hold? Guess it's a waiting game to see what they say.

Did the surveyor go in the roof and see where the leak was coming from? Or look from outside?

Sorry - no time to read other posts. What happens when it rains in summer - does it leak/is it damp? If so, it's a hole in the roof. If not, it would indicate condensation.

Feeling your pain, Fairylea. We have a serious damp problem in our spare room on the chimney breast - at the top, so it looked as though it was a chimney stack or roofing problem. Roofer couldn't see any missing tiles but put some bitumen around the area above where the damp was. Didn't help at all, it's just got worse. The room is now unusable and we also have an infestation of tiny flies in it. The damp problem is starting in DS's bedroom .

We now ventilate, heat and dehumidify fanatically and are waiting for another builder to come and give his opinion. I hadn't thought about contacting our insurance company, we'll give that a try. I just wish somebody found tell us exactly what the problem is, it all seems like guesswork.

MrsVestibule check your flashing (where the roof joins the building.

For both of you, it really, really is worth going into the attic with a torch on a windy rainy day (white spray paint in the other hand) and observing.

Being in the dark is a MUCH more horrible panicky feeling than knowing what is going on.

Really like the sensible financial advice being given here (never thought of that at all, wow!), will mark my place for when it is my turn...

I don't want to alarm you even more but I think a new roof will cost a lot more than £3k. Scaffolding is an extra cost because roofers' quotes don't usually include it.

And be aware that an 'estimate' is different to a 'quote'. An estimate is just a rough idea of what the job will cost, whereas a quote should be in writing, itemise realistic costs for everything, and will form part of the contract between you and the tradesman. And make sure it includes VAT.

Also, is your guttering OK or does that need replacing too? If it's likely to need replacing in the near future it's worth considering getting it done at the same time as the roof because the scaffolding will be up and then you won't need to pay for more scaffolding in a few years' time.

We recently had a new roof so researching roofs is still fresh in my mind. I found this site useful for basic information:

www.myredlandroof.co.uk/my-new-roof/roof-renovation-questions/

and they have a useful checklist here:

www.myredlandroof.co.uk/my-new-roof/roof-renovation-questions/

I also came across some interesting information about moist air condensing as water on cold metal surfaces (eg water pipes) which is apparently an additional reason to insulate them (not just to keep the water inside the pipes from freezing). You said one roofer said you had a metal bar running above your bedroom - if so I wouldn't rule out condensation as the problem, as water vapour might be condensing on the metal beam when it gets very cold and then running down the electrical wire.

As others have said, get into the loft. B&Q have some good DIY videos on YouTube and this one is about getting ready to install loft insulation and includes information about a suitable ladder, lighting, and using walkboards:

Good luck!

Thank you for your help and such detailed posts. I'm so grateful. Lots of help from you all.

I am beginning to realise that 3k for a new roof is looking quite ambitious ... I did some googling and my eyes nearly fell out of my head at someone saying they were quoted 10k :( ... if it's nearer to that amount I really don't know what we are going to do, I don't think we would even be able to afford the repayments on a loan or whatever for that much :( and then if anything else went wrong we would be absolutely screwed :(

We have the first of now six roofers coming tomorrow to give us a quote. Thank you for the advice about estimates and quotes.

I am also wondering if we will even be able to pay by credit card anyway so we might have to rethink and apply for a loanI don't know. I'm worried it's going to take ages and the damp is getting worse all the time :(

Both surveyors - the homebuyers one and the independent one from the insurance - went into the loft. The insurance one also went on the roof itself - he's the one who's said we need a new roof. He took photos from all angles and I can see the damage along the ridge and the mortar. The felt is also non breathable apparently and is saturated with black mould (looked absolutely vile on photos).

I still cannot believe it .

Sounds like the second surveyor did a thorough job. Did he leave a card showing his qualifications (just being nosy here)?

As regards the non-breathable felt, you can have vents put in the roof which would allow the loft to 'breathe' - ask the roofers when they are round as this might be worth investigating if recovering the roof itself is not feasible.

Interesting that yu are in a semi and certainly worth talking to your neighbour.

do you live in an old building as many were made with permeable walls so if someone comes along and uses impermeable paint sealants etc, it just seals damp in a lot of products advertised to make bricks etc waterproof are really really bad on older houses without cavity walls damp courses etc and make problem worse rather than better

sounds like roofing felt was one of these

Virgin credit card do a long term cash 0% offer and can do it as a cash transfer with a handling charge to a current account.

Look at how much the handling fee would be and add it to your total. Divide by length of the 0% offer to get what you need to pay monthly.

Get the figures for a loan - add up the repayments eg for a 1 year loan the monthly repayment x12 to see how much the interest adds on - if the interest is less than the handling fee go for that.

If you have to move the balance on a card over after the offer runs out you would have another handling fee so take that in to consideration.

Damp or dry rot, or any of those issues are very aggravating but are not the end of the world, I had it recently in a bathroom all along the shower and it was such a nuisance but we contacted this company, Abacus who helped us out, even if you just call and ask for some advice it may help to know where to start and how to try solve the issue without letting it spread.