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Original poster

Any Victorian house dwellers here? HELP needed with big scary new roof dilemna...

32 replies

30andLurking · 25/11/2009 08:48

Hi all
We're looking to buy a lovely big Victorian house, which needs a fair bit of work doing. We've budgeted for it and it's a stretch but just about possible.
Surveyor went in this week and tells us the roof needs replacing, this is NOT in the budget and we can't renegotiate our offer.
We'll get a quote, but has anyone done similar and can give me a rough ball park of how much to expect before I get any more emotionally commited/completely give up on this place? It's a detached Victorian 4-bed with concrete tiles on the pitched bits and a felt flat roof bit, which all need replacing (so scaffolding I guess?) but the joists etc seem sound.
I love it, we can no longer afford it, I'm going to cry

OP posts:

foxinsocks · 25/11/2009 08:50

I think surveyors almost always say that about victorian houses (we've never had a survery that didn't!)

the flat roof isn't too much of a problem (not enormously costly) but will probably only last 10 years when it's done

you need to get exactly why the main roof needs replacing...that is the sort of thing you can take off the price (if it is indeed necessary)

Lauriefairyonthetreeeatscake · 25/11/2009 08:51

Does it definitely need replacing? Can it wait? I ask because when we moved here I thought the roof might need replacing and the roofie who came out to repair a couple of tiles and point said he expected our ugly concrete tiles to last another 40-50 years.

He laughed and said it would outlive him and me

Any chance you could just get it repaired. I appreciate the flat roof part might - we have a flat rood part and it will need replacing in next five years, they only have a 10-15 year lifespan.

Original poster

30andLurking · 25/11/2009 08:59

Thanks for pointers. Unfortunately I think it really does need to be done relatively quickly. The surveyor is a straight-talking type who showed us around some bits of the house that he wanted to explain, and said lots of things like 'my survey will say there is woodworm which needs to be treated, but if I were you I wouldn't bother'. So when he says the roof has probably got a maximum life of 5 years, I think he means it.

The tiles are some kind of concrete, and apparently they get more porous over time. There is actually water coming in, although I appreciate that in any other month over the past 3 years we'd probably not know that because it's been positively monsoonal here for the past few weeks.

I don't think we can renegotiate on price, as we weren't actually the highest bidder but they went with us because we were going to be 'trouble-free' .

Go on, scare me, what are we looking at here...? £10k? £20k? and my first-born?

OP posts:

Lauriefairyonthetreeeatscake · 25/11/2009 09:10

The last time I paid for a new roof in a house was about 10 years ago and was a Victorian 2 bed cottage in the southeast - it cost 5k. I would expect about 12k probably?

fishie · 25/11/2009 09:13

i've got a victorian house with concrete roof. the tiles are heavier than slate so it went a bit saggy, we got it shored up and never had any problems.

i'd get a roofer to look at it (and don't tell them what the surveyor said). that is fair enough if water is actually coming in.

CMOTdibbler · 25/11/2009 09:15

DH is pretty good on pricing these, and reckons 15k would def cover it, just depends on what roof covering you would have to use, if you would do guttering/soffits/fascias/bargeboards at the same time. Whilst you are paying out for scaffolding it is probably going to be worth it.

You can do flat roofs with a 20 year expected life now.

I'd get a roofer round to have a look and tell you what he'd do

GentleOtter · 25/11/2009 09:19

We were given two quotes (two years ago) for an entire reroof. Our house has four areas of roof - two houses stuck together.
1st quote - £13000
2nd £26,000

(For what it is worth, a third company tried to sell us an entire new room for the roof which would be fitted in a day - for £60,000.)

Pannacotta · 25/11/2009 09:24

I'd get a feew roofers to look at it, ideally recommended to you or who belong to some kind of trade organisation.

Peraps worth asking your DH to arrange the quotes or talk to them - IME some roofers are a bit old fashioned (sexist) though this could just be an old Norfolk tradition!

Original poster

30andLurking · 25/11/2009 09:28

£60k!! And a new room in a day! How extraordinary... Did it come equipped with dancing girls/a portal to another time zone/a sound-proof child-free airlock/

OP posts:

Pannacotta · 25/11/2009 09:32

I'd deffo get some quotes before giving up, you might well be able to repair rather than replace.

This is what we have done as we couldnt afford to replace (and didnt need to) and and it fixed the various leaks. We spent around £3-4K. Our house is also Victorian with mostly concrete tiles (slate only to the front elevation).

GOod luck.

Original poster

30andLurking · 25/11/2009 09:36

Sorry, realised that should be MrDibbler...

OP posts:

GentleOtter · 25/11/2009 10:14

£60 K. pfft.

Apparently the company make a bespoke roof room, a team take the old roof off, the new roof arrives in sections on large lorries and voila! new roof is whammed up in a day.

A lovely thought but you could almost buy a small house for that.

The £13,000 quote was the most realistic and that was from a local slater with a good reputation.

CMOTdibbler · 25/11/2009 10:20

TBH, if the roof really does need replacing totally, your sellers would be mad not to reduce their price to allow for this.

Before you drop out and lose all that money, get a good roofer to come and have a look, give you a price, and then lay it on the line with the seller. Then at least you'll know you did all you could

systemsaddict · 25/11/2009 10:24

Depends on the area and size of house, my friend had a Victorian roof replaced on a 3 bed house for £4K and was happy with the job (and she is demanding). We are in the North West though. Her quotes ranged from that to about £20K.

We moved into our Victorian house 9 years ago and were told the roof would last 5 years. We knew we wouldn't be here forever so decided to try and just keep it going. Got away with one major patch-up and one small one and have just sold it on.

claricebeansmum · 25/11/2009 10:26

Everyone re-negotiates after their survey!

spicemonster · 25/11/2009 10:31

We had ours replaced in my last house and it was about £2k iirc. But that was quite a small house.

You also need to factor in the cost of scaffolding. I live in an enormous Edwardian house (not all of it I hasten to add) which is 5 stories high and just the scaffolding cost us £2k when we had the woodwork repainted!

fannybanjo · 25/11/2009 10:37

I agree with surveyors being a bit on the OTT side where roofs are concerned. We too were told that we needed a new roof on our (now sold) Victorian house but when we got a decent local roofer to have a look at it, it only needed a bit of work which came to around £500. Definitely get a local roofer (try to get a recommended one) to have a look at it.

Please also be aware that your budget will most probably go out of the window, you will find all kinds of extra jobs that need doing when you eventually buy it. Don't want to put you off but they are money pits. Ours nearly bankrupted us!

SexyDomesticatedDad · 25/11/2009 10:46

If the flat roof is a bit iffy would deffo get it replaced asap - its not that expensive and worth it. Never replaced a whole roof but as others said get a roofer in and a few quotes can possibly be repaired or at least put off the dreaded day for a few years. Concrete tiles are porous and do get heavier so also worth adding extra support to roof maybe. Depends on how it is you could get away with a few repairs.

Ours is late Georgian and yes 'tis bit of a money pit - got plasterer right now finishing off a damp problem we had - mostly caused by the last owners who botched things or seemd to cut corners. On the plus side its way bigger than the modern ones we could afford at the time.

Most jobs seem to take longer than you plan for .

Original poster

30andLurking · 25/11/2009 10:50

Thanks all - going in tomorrow for scary quotes so will see what our options are.

Would much rather DH went as I'll just want to stroke the lovely bannisters and stained glass door and sash windows, and all the utterly impractical things that have made me fall in love with it (so yes banjo, we will be eating baked beans for the rest of our life, but we'll be doing it in a room with cornicing, damnit!), but he has a meeting.

Just on the topic, can estate agents actually lie about other bidders/their circumstances? Ours seemed to think our first bid would be accepted until a mystery full asking price offer came out of the woodwork. Because if that mysterious buyer doesn't actually exist it might change our chances of re-negotiating

OP posts:

fannybanjo · 25/11/2009 10:55

HA HA of course estate agents lie about bids etc! I could write a book on the crap that came out of my last estate agents mouth when we sold our house. If you need a new roof, make sure you negotiate - don't pay over the odds for a house that needs a lot of work unless you are loaded and can swallow the loss.

posieparker · 25/11/2009 10:57

This is a buyers market, if you're selling you are desperate to sell. I would re-negociate at least half the cost.

Original poster

30andLurking · 25/11/2009 11:07

It's not a buyers market here! Two houses I thought were promising in the past couple of months sold at full asking before I could even book a viewing. Recession? Hurrumph!

And yes I know estate agents will spin it any which way they need to, but can they actually just make stuff up without breaking all sorts of codes of conduct??

OP posts:

spicemonster · 25/11/2009 11:41

They are not supposed to make stuff up but it's difficult to prove they're lying (unless you can ask the vendor).

Thing is that you need to be very honest about the costs of refurb. And like others have said, I'd add 20-30% onto your estimates because it will always go over budget.

If they have received an offer at the asking price, then the other person will presumably also do a survey and also negotiate on the price. TBH with an old house that needs work, you'd be mad not to drop your offer after the survey.

fannybanjo · 25/11/2009 12:24

We paid in 2006 £365,000 for a Victorian house valued at £400,000. Our budget after extensive surveys was approx £70,000. We ended up having to spend £130,000 on it to get it up to scratch, the windows alone were £17,000, central heating £10,000 etc. Due to unforeseen financial circumstances we HAD to sell it come what may and in early 2009 ended up having to sell it for £415,000. We lost nearly £80,000.

Obviously this is a scenario which has nothing to do with what you are planning but it is something I will always bear in mind if I ever made a future house purchase. Our budget ended up going from £70,000 to £130,000 as continually problems were found, rotten woodwork and joists, walls needed pinning, water mains were no good, the list could go on.

Sorry if I sound a bit of a killjoy but if you are really stretching yourself, your dream house can quickly become a huge nightmare. Give it huge consideration and think with your head and not your heart. I wish we had done so!

posieparker · 25/11/2009 12:36

YOu may find the mortgage company may not give you a mortgage if the house needs work and you are over paying for it.

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