Flat roof replacement

[roofwoes]

NC for this as unsure if my neighbour is on MN.

We live in a semi detached house and noticed that our side of a flat roof dormer that runs across ours and NDN house needed attention, the lip appeared to have peeled away. We said to our NDN that we had spotted this and would be getting roofers to have a look and advise us. All ok from neighbour. We have a good relationship with them. Both of us are home owners instead of us being owners and NDN renting.

The 3 companies who we invited to survey for us advised our roof needed replacing as it was cracking / failing due to numerous patch repairs done by previous owners and they quoted accordingly.

Updated neighbour and all seemed to be OK. They were asking for how much we had been quoted etc which we told them ball park figure along with the roofing company details as they were asking so they could get survey done on their side and the tune has changed to an unsettling one. As far as we were aware from the roofers chats their side is newer than ours, we haven't told NDN this as it's not our news to tell and don't want to fall into the trap of potentially being liable for full run of roof to be replaced. NDN can be a bit of a Billy big bollocks but has never been this way with us.

They are asking if our roofer would guarantee their side which appears now isn't being replaced or even surveyed if they had problems after our side was replaced as there would be a joint that could be a weak point and that we would need to potentially agree access to their side of the roof to necessitate the replacement of our side? We went back and said once we had chosen the roofing company out of those that quoted we would ask roofer the necessary questions. Currently there are no joints as the felt is laid edge to edge like wallpaper.

Is this potentially going to open up a whole hell pit for us? We only told NDN about the roof issue for being neighbourly as it needs done prior to autumn / winter due to the side of the house being open to the full prevailing wind / rain / elements.

Not overly thrilled at having a large roof bill as the money had been ear marked for other things but suppose that's part of being a home owner 🤨

Appreciate any advice or wisdom from fellow MNtters on this situation ❤️

I cannot envisage a roofer guaranteeing their side. It just isn't reasonable. Flat roofs do have joins in the asphalt but usually when all laid together. You can't escape reality that it will be a weak point but your roofer will advise. The sensible thing would be for neighbours to agree to replace the whole area, but that depends on how newer their side is - why isn't there an existing joint if theirs is newer.

Frankly I hate flat roofs as they are a,ways attempting to defy gravity and always leak at some point, hence why I have always tried to replace them with conventional roofs

Not what you asked but if you can stretch to rubber or fibreglass rather than felt I would. I've replaced flat roofs on two properties, one was a mid terrace with a flat roof across all three properties. No issue with joins. We had fibreglass which our roofer sealed against the felt of our neighbours portions.

@MarieG10 thank you I thought I was missing something completely 🤦‍♀️ from what we can see the strips are laid like wallpaper edge to edge with an edge at the moment and there is an edge / join at where the roof would change from theirs to ours so therefore there's already a 'weak' point? Hoping to move in next 5 years and our next house will ideally be detached and have no large flat roof areas.

@Onedaylikethi5 thank you, our preference is rubber rather than replace with felt for durability. We got quotes for both types as the rubber one would be longer lasting especially as the prevailing weather batters the back of the house.

Instead of rubber or felt you could consider fibreglass matting which is then covered in epoxy resin, I had my flat roofs done over 25 years ago and (touch wood) still seem to be perfectly sound.

Is there a shared wall in the middle, or two walls very close together? Clearly the joint is of some concern and the three companies quoting should all have advised..

@filka there aren't any local roof companies that do fibreglass unfortunately. The dormer runs the entire length of the houses so across ours and continues onto their side too. Wandering around the estate this morning there are plenty of the same style houses that have different roof coverings & ages done at different times.

Spoke with our non joined NDN too and he is of the opinion that joined NDN is at it / being a bully.

Ours needs done now so it doesn't develop into a much bigger problem ❤️ with the incoming winter

I know it's a lot of money but you are wise to have it done. I bought this bungalow in March 2021 and was delighted when the vendor told me she'd had the resin roof installed in 2019, thinking I could save for the eight years or so for the replacement. In Storm Arwen in November 2021 it blew off completely, exposing the kitchen and lounge, the ceiling came in about three days later. It was hell and seemed to rain so much last autumn. Couldn't get it fixed until February. Seems the company she had employed had only nailed the plasterboard to the joists, not screwed them down.

I was nervous the roofers used resin in 48 degrees, but apparently there is now a 'winter mix'.

@Salome61 oh we do want to do it, the fly in the ointment is the NDN we are adjoined to being arsey with it now even thigh we've kept them updated. The last thing we want is chaos and carnage if it fails especially as the back of the house gets the brunt of the prevailing weather. Our worry is NDN will then miraculously have an issue with their side and try to claim us 😫

From our Google research today it looks like the roofer would put a baton / strip at the roof boundary line to join our new one to their old one. Going to contact the roofer's tomorrow and also double check with building standards dept at local council. We won't be the first and certainly not the last with a NDN who could cause a problem. It's ashame really as prior to this our relationship with them was fine 🤷‍♀️

I share the tiled roof with my semi detached bungalow neighbours and know I'll have difficulty with them when I need to replace my 'half'. When I ran round to let them know my flat roof was waving around and heading for their conservatory, he told me to go 'back inside as there's nothing we can do'. I did come back to water pouring through the spotlights, my poor dog was terrified.

Good luck!

I wonder if a party wall type agreement might be appropriate to protect you, if such a thing exists for roofs? We’re in a similar situation. We agreed with our neighbours to replace the roof in one piece together in rubber. We came home from holiday and they’d done theirs! We won’t be giving any guarantees for their side when we do ours shortly though.

How horrible Houseplantmad. Did they do their bit in rubber?

@Salome61 they sound charming 😳 (not!). Our tiled area is also shared 🤞🏻 it's OK for now as that would be another headache and a much much bigger expense than what our flat roof quotes are.

@Houseplantmad I had a read at the party wall agreement guidance on gov website and it doesn't come in scope for PWA 😩 Going to speak with building control dept tomorrow to see if they can give any guidance. Sounds similar to us we won't be giving any guarantees, all we were doing was being neighbourly and they asked about ball park cost / if it was free survey / who the roofing company were which we gave them freely and stupidly thought oh it's maybe because they would decide to do their side at the same time.

He has twattish tendencies but they've never been aimed at us but at least now we know as he's shown him true self. Certainly won't be taking in any further parcels for them

PS @@Houseplantmad that's really really twatish behaviour 😯 hope you bought some wind chimes