Potential roof problems - Damaged felt under tiles?

[Startingagainandagain]

I bought a small terrace house built in 1937 and I was hoping to be seeing the end of maintenance/upgrades issues but I have been poking around the roof/loft and I think bits of the felt are looking rather dodgy.

I can't see any water/damp/leak in the loft space anywhere, even after the recent storms, but there old insulation which seems to be coming off in place between the rafters (again the insulation material does not feel wet but it is old stuff) and I was sort of feeling my way around and I am starting to wonder if the felt and insulation material has been slowly disintegrating in places...

Who do I call to check this? a roofer I assume?

Also do people know if it is possible to replace felt and insulation only from underneath without touching the tiles?

Everyone in the street seems to still have the original wide 1930s tiles as they are apparently quite solid and I can see that my neighbours have only replaced about two tiles each in the time they have lived there (decades).

I really can't afford a brand new roof now to say the least (I would have to negotiate with the mortgage company to add this to the mortgage) and I was hoping to at least not have to do that for a couple of years.

I had a really bad surveyor who botched the full survey I had commissioned so unfortunately I seem to have my fair share of horrors to deal with...

Any advice much appreciated.

Also I wonder how easy people have managed to negotiate with their mortgage provider to add to the mortgage if it really comes to the worse...my mortgage is quite small (£60K).

Well if the roof has not been replaced since new then I think most people would say 80 years is a pretty long lifespan for a roof.

Probably nothing wrong with it. If it isn’t leaking, ignore it.

It is isn't leaking then don't worry about it. You will know if it is because wet patches will appear on the ceilinga of the upstairs rooms.

You can replace or add to the insulation yourself. It is an easy DIY job.

The existing stuff is likely to be fibreglass, expecially if it is old, so make sure you wear a mask, goggles, gloves and a disposable suit or overalls when you are in the loft as it will irritate your lungs and skin and gets everywhere and is just generally horrible. You can buy recycled glass insulation now which is much less horrible to work with or wool, which is even nicer but a bit more pricey.

@Geneticsbunny Thank you.

Yes I am hoping to get a bit more life out of that roof.

Thankfully I have a good handyman who has been doing a great jobs on other things in and outside the house so I will get him to have a look, double check for any leak and whether we can replace/top-up some of the old insulation for now while I save if works on the roof itself becomes necessary.

As I said none of the terraces in our row have had their roof done. Same with neighbour opposite who had scaffolding on a couple of weeks ago but was told by the roofer to keep his roof with its wide, solid tiles and just fix a couple of broken ones.

I am a worrier so I always try to anticipate things going wrong...

But surely by the time that happens your ceiling is soaked. So not only do you have a roof to fix, you also have a ceiling to replace and a whole load of soaking wet fibreglass to extract and get rid of ?

I have a small leak in the roof. I am concerned that it will rot one of the support struts eventually. But for the moment the strut seems ok and dries out in the summer. I have one of those massive plastic stack boxes underneath. It only collects a few mls or so when the rain gets really bad as the water drips through but at least it protects the ceilings from any damage.

Yes. I forgot about plastic storage boxes. We also have quite a few of those in our loft which we check regularly.
What I meant was that if you have only just moved in and there is no existing ceiling damage then the leaks can't be that bad yet. You can check by waiting till there is a really big storm and then going into the loft and checking for leaks.

If you do end up putting a bucket up there, make sure you check and empty it regularly.

There is also some adhesive stuff that you can buy from somewhere like Screwfix that you can squirt onto the back of the tiles to seal up small leaks until you get the roof redone.

We had some roof felt that was coming away. Unfortunately it can't be fixed from underneath so they had to take some tiles off, repair the felt, put tiles back on. Fortunately it was only a few small bits. It's the scaffolding that costs all the money it seems.

Ta. I might have a look at that sealant. Or at least try to paint the strut with some sort of preservative.

Fortunately only 1 plastic box and the size is more to make sure I catch the water than the amount !

@GasPanic it was this stuff

https://www.diy.com/departments/everbuild-grey-emergency-roof-gutter-sealer-310ml/5029347612368_BQ.prd

My parents ' house was built about the same time and hasn't even got the sarking felt. You can see the tiles above the loft. It's tiles that keep the weather out and the felt is really belt and braces. To replace the felt the tiles need to come off, unfortunately.

You know you have a leaking roof, but have not attempted to either fix it or get someone round as soon as possible to fix it and are happy to put a plastic box under it ? Its only going to go one way ………..worse.

To update people I had someone check the roof and insulation. They said things look fine. There is just a bit of work needed on the flashing which will be done next week.

I am still planning to save as much as possible so I have a bigger 'roof fund' to address any issues in the future.

Yes. But at the moment it is not that serious, only a few ml when it rains heavily for prolonged periods like it has done recently.

I don't see the point of putting up expensive scaffolding to fix a tiny leak. I would rather wait until there is more stuff that needs to be done and have it all done in one go.

It's a relatively new house and the wood looks in good shape. You are right it will rot eventually but I don't see that happening or causing me problems in the immediate (5 year) future.