Survey-slate roof

[Subbaxeo]

So we’re buying a house and have had a full building survey. Main thing is that the original slate roof has no felt underneath and surveyor says that it needs stripping and felting and given an estimated cost of £10000. House was built in 30s. Has anyone had experience of this? Would you renegotiate? In my mind, it’s expected with the age of the house-and has been done to extension, but original roof untouched. He says the roof tiles look reasonable. Lots of ‘unable to inspect properly because could not lift boards etc’. Is this normal?

It’s quite normal for old houses to have no roof felt . It’s the tiles that keep the water out not the felt/ membrane if the roof ( tiles look to be in good condition then you would be crazy to spend ten grand just to put a membrane under it. If it’s been doing a good job for 80 years it can’t be that bad ?

Building regs now require membrane so that’s why the new extension has it. And yes it’s normal for surveyors to cover themselves by saying things like this .

Personally I see no felt as a bonus because if you do get a leAk you can see exactly where it’s coming from as opposed to it running down the member for a few years without knowing it’s there.

Membrane is there to keep dirt,birds,insects out not the rain.

Yes, that all sounds normal.

We bought a 1930s house six years ago, with the original roof - no felt etc. We knew it was only a matter of time before it would need attention. It was fine for a while, but last year we started getting water coming in as the lead had split in one of the valleys.

We decided to get the whole roof done then, as the cost of the work to replace the lead in the valleys, including the necessary scaffolding, was a significant proportion of the cost to renew the whole roof. The work came to £7000.

You may be luckier and get longer out of it than we did.

Thank you for that-I was thinking of the tiles were in good condition then there would be no need to do this until we got a leak. I didn’t think of that-that we would be able to identify the source of a leak.!

Be careful that some lenders won’t lend on roofs with no membrane. My brother in law hit this issue and the mortgage lender put a retainer on. Anyway we have just had our cottage done. Original tiles lifted, rotten battening replaced, new membrane and vents put in, extra insulation, original tiles relaid with new verges and repointing to chimneys. A two week job £6.5k

My in-laws were told to replace their roof in a survey. They lived in the house for 25 years and just patched it up. Surveyors can be very over-excitable.

No need to do anything if the roof is doing the job. I had my rafters exposed when I replaced the ceilings and the building regs guy (there for a different reason) said 'those look thin' and that they were not up to today's code. But as I wasn't altering the space there's nothing that needed to be done- the house is 150 years old and roof still doing well 8 years later. If it ain't broke why fix it?

Thank you-these things are what I’m thinking. I don’t feel we would get money off for basically having the original roof.

Presumably the £10k cost covers actual slate, if that is what is on at present?

Real slate is expensive and other options are available, including fake-slate if you need to keep the look.

It hasn’t been repaired several times in the last 30 years. I think you’re on the wrong thread, we don’t live in Australia. @AmeliakRyanare