Any Roofers or Builders around please?

[NewHouseProblems]

Does anyone know about roof purlins? I've had a house survey come back and I don't know if I should run. This house will take every penny of my divorce so I can't afford any big bill surprises later on, there are already several other niggles and google is being very unhelpful. The house was built in the 1950s if that makes a difference.

The survey says that "some of the purlins were noted to have splits along the grain of the timber".

Roofers/builders are like unicorn tears around here otherwise I would ask someone to physically go check it out for me.

Thanks for any help.

If they are split they need repair or replacement depending on where the split is and how bad it is, they may have already had splits in them when the roof was constructed, did the surveyor take photos, they usually do. What other niggles are there. If you want the house then I'd ask the agents or vendors if you can ask a roofer to take a look and give you a quote if any part of the roof needs repair. What area are you in, someone here might help, there are also national companies

I would not be overly worried. They have most likely been like that for decades. You can even put steel straps around them, like giant jubilee clips, to prevent any more separation.

Purlins can be braced or supported internally. It's not usually too difficult to do. But as others have said take a roofer with you to have a look.

Unfortunately decent roofers that are available are rare round here (takes months for quotes), and unfortunately the surveyor didn't put any photos in the report. I might email and see if they took any for them to refer to for writing up the report though, thanks for putting that idea into my head.

I'm in East Midlands if anyone knows of a decent and reasonably available roofer/company, and approximately how much would it cost? 2k or 20k?

If the roof is not bowed, so dished, it’s not urgent. Similarly if he surveyor did not list it as an emergency, it’s not.
You are (most likely) looking at hundreds, not thousands, if it even needs to be addressed.
Phone the surveyor and ask him.

Thanks. There was no mention of sagging roof at all, or even slipped tiles, so this stunned me a bit. The surveyor did mark it as red zone, but they marked an awful lot as red and most of them aren't scary. Roofs are 😬

Every case is different.
It depends if the splits are bad.
Sometimes metal reinforcing plates are used to strengthen them.
You need someone that’s honest, to look at them.

They are big pieces of wood and over time some do show signs of splitting.
large sections of timber do tend to split as they dry out /season.
unless you can see its split all the way through or the roof is sagging, then it’s usually not a problem.

any photos ?
where in the east midlands ( roughly ) ?

No photos but I've emailed the surveyor this afternoon to see if she took any for her report writing and to clarify how bad they are (or not). I'm in Derbyshire.