Rotten battens, now escalated?

[Compash]

Dear Property Vipers,

I'll try to keep this simple: we've had a couple of slipped roof tiles, and previously been advised of some rotten battens - got a roofer to look yesterday - he took one tile down as dangerous (it was only held on by the gutter) so now there's a hole with no batten, but he said he can't repair it on a ladder, he needs scaffolding. He also pointed out lifted tiles on each end of the house and some soffit/fascia repair needing done, fair enough, this is visible.

So he has scaffolders who work for him and has arranged for them to come tomorrow - to scaffold the length of the 4-bed detached house for £700 - and we're to pay them cash in hand (this doesn't sit right with me). This guy has worked for us before, and he's okay, but I wondered if I should pay more and get better (not guaranteed, I know!) And this is just for him to inspect, we've had no quote yet.

My DH is very keen to go ahead in that 'get it sorted' way, plus, missing tile and rain on the way... Is it worth the heartache and anxiety of cancelling this - or just get it done asap? I felt a bit bounced into it yesterday, but it does need done... But I would feel maybe held to ransom if his scaffolders are on our building, and without a paper trail too... A simple one-tile fix would buy me time, but it seems this can't be done.

Argh, I am shredded with anxiety and would really appreciate a little advice from those who know about this sort of thing...

Guessing if the battens are rotten then there is nothing to fix a single slate to so that is probably why he won’t do it. There are ways you could bodge it as a diy job to tide you over but I can understand a professional not wanting to do that as it’s their name / reputation against it. If you are unable / unwilling to climb up yourself and do the repair then I don’t see you have an option. £700 to scaffold a building doesn’t seem extortionate to me and your roofer has to think health and safety etc so not worth his while to cut corners. If all the battens are rotten I’m assuming you’ll need the whole lot tearing off and replacing in the not too distant future? Worth just doing the whole thing now for peace of mind if you have the money of course.

Thanks for your answer, @NonmagicMike , and you are absolutely right - there's nothing to attach it to, so a bodge would be just that!

I'm actually very happy up a high ladder, but once I got there, I wouldn't have a clue what to do... and the battens do need replaced for sure (there's also been condensation in the attic which I guess might have contributed? He's advised a few vent tiles and to push the lagging away from the edges for that). At the very least, I reckon we'll need a few layers of tiles removed and the battens and felt replaced. Maybe dry verges put on too. While they're up there, and all.

I think I'm just anxious about the whole thing which is why I'm projecting my fears a bit. We do have the money (a couple of old farts with no kids or expensive habits! 😄). But this is a lesson to me to actually get jobs done before the crisis point so I can reflect at leisure!

Thanks again, I appreciate it. 🙂

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Essential

We had a whole roof replacement last year and paid £1200 for the scaffold around the whole house so £700 doesn't sound too bad. We also paid cash to the scaffolder.

I think you are missing the point about the ladder, I'm sure a roofer is happier up a ladder than you are but if they need to move backwards and forwards the scaffolding is safer and more practical.

Yes, he said something about needing 'two points of contact' - like, if he's using both hands to replace the batten, he can't be holding safely to the ladder.

I know the work needs to be done, and we have used him before. It's just the suddenness of it has scrambled my brain, and we also need a new boiler, so this is just one more thing on top of it...

We have some old quotes from other roofers, so we have a ballpark, though that was for slightly different work... If it were just those two tiles, I'd query a tower scaffold, but it's clear the whole length of the eaves needs attention.

Just trying to separate my anxious feelings from the practicalities. Every answer helps, thank you.

I would be looking at the £700 as a sunk cost.

You need to pay that to find out exactly what needs doing. It sounds like the roof is in a bit of a state with lots of work needing to be done on various bits, so I would be prepping myself for a large bill. If it comes in cheap then at least you will be pleasantly surprised.

In a normal environment I would be looking to get several people in to quote. However good roofers are hard to find and if you trust this guy maybe paying him a premium would be worth it for not having to risk getting the job done by someone you don't know and might turn out to be a cowboy. If he has a local reputation for being good he won't want to risk that.

@GasPanic , that's exactly the phrase, thank you - sunk cost - I'm prepared to do that to have a proper look at the roof, even if it's just for him to make the loose tiles safe and do a report and a quote. Then we can have a think.

It's a concrete-tiled house from about 1979 - 80, and I see a lot of the local houses have replacement verges or even new rooves. We're of an age where we want to get stuff fixed before we're retired and less capable, so...

Plus, the local pigeons seem to conduct a great deal of their sex lives up there, so I'm sure half the dislodgment is due to those grubby little sky-rats... 😧

I have the same issues. The guttering was not designed to take a few kilos of pigeons messing around in it.

What's worse is they slide down the conservatory roof and land in the guttering with a massive thud which probably stresses it more.

At the moment though they are too busy stripping the plum tree to worry about wrecking the gutterings.

No advice but some solidarity. I got someone out thinking we’d got a few slipped tiles…turns out all the battens are rotten and there’s absolutely no felt under there and the whole thing is costing four times the price to fix. Wish I’d never looked up to be honest 😁

Those dirty rotters! (Pigeons, not roofers). 😆

Yes, not looking up is a great strategy! I was reading a thread here recently where people are letting their houses fall to bits from the greater fear of getting trades in... but what can one do in the face of rampant avian congress... 🤷‍♀️🐦

Well exactly! The pigeons round here tend to prefer our shed roof, so I think it’s just age that’s had it in for our poor kitchen roof. It’s going to take me some time to get over this though 😫

That thread sounds interesting. I can sympathise. We’re going to be selling soon and I was trying to get anything sorted that would show up on a survey or cause any problems. STUPID STUPID ME.

That's honest of you, @TweezerMay ! I wish I'd bought my house off you instead of the people we did! As far as I can tell, surveyors miss a bunch of stuff anyway, ours is about as sound as an Omaze house... 😆

Aww thanks @Compash, that’s made me feel a bit better and less of an idiot. This’ll be the last thing I fix and spend money on though! THE LAST THING <shakes fist at the sky>

I agree. Demanding cash payment is a massive red flag that they're tax evaders, and if they're playing fast and loose with tax, they're hardly likely to be reputable and honest in other ways either. Unfortunately, tax evasion, benefit fraud, illegal workers etc is rife with some roofers and scaffolders. Pay cash and you've no legal redress, not even any proof you've paid them as they're really not going to give you a receipted invoice that would lead HMRC back to them via a paper trial to catch them. If they're not putting all the work through the books, you won't be covered by their insurance either (if they have any!).

Get another few quotes. There are lots of honest/genuine roofers out there.

OP, how are you getting on? We have very similar issues in our roof as rotten battens were discovered in the course of next door's having work done on the shared valley ... and we knew we had an issue up there but the very occasional leak had stopped after someone refixed some tiles, so we thought it was 'ok'... stupid!! The damage had clearly been done.

I think sometimes you just have to pay up front for the scaffolding so roofers can actually get up there and see what's what before quoting. We often hear that scaffolding is the costliest part of a roof job (within reason ... 😬) but you'll need it up for the job to be done, and this sort of job really does need more than one quote, so I was wondering if there was any way you could source the scaffolders yourself and then leave it up there, get in other roofers for quotes, and leave it up for the job (assuming you can a) find enough roofers who will come round and quote you, and b) get one in who can do the work before Christmas...).

I appreciate this thread is a few days old now so perhaps this has been resolved. Would really be interested to know how you're getting on though.

Well, we got the scaffolding sorted and the roofers came and took some tiles off and we clearly have rotten battens, disintegrated felt and crumbling verges - we got up there and saw it ourselves, took photos. Like yours, @GlomOfNit (wild user name!) it had been fixed piecemeal, but that had just hidden the decay. They patched it for the weekend.

So today we were still waiting on a quote for repair of all the above when the team turned up 'to start stripping the roof'... but when we told them we had nothing in writing so couldn't let them go ahead, they fully understood and went to do another job.

So we poked the boss and are still waiting on the quote. It's not that we expect it to be outlandish, but as Samuel Goldwyn used to say, a verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on! Will move on to other roofers if we get no joy today.

Watch this space, literally...