aAsk a Tradesman

Hi,
have you got som experience with sprayed foam roof insulation, is it good or not? Does anyone do it, how much it cost per square meter, in what depth is it installed ???

thanks for any advise
Joe

We have recently purchased an 1930s semi and the original clay roof is on its way out (discovered in survey). We had one roofer (tried to get more) look at it before we purchased and he agreed with the survey that it is need of complete replacement.

However my wife had a knock on the door from a company (i can give name if wished) claiming to be able to restore the existing tiles by re coating them. They claim they will replace tiles if needed but will try to just clean and coat the old clay tiles. Is this really a good idea? Sounds to me like they will simply cause more damage as they coat try and coat and clean them and leave us worse off. Is this common practice? What are your thoughts?

My builder has repointed repointed some of the barn roof tiles on the lower addition of my house. I am concerned that the mortar mix that he has used is very weak, as it has cracked and breaks easily. You can also crumble it away with your fingers as it appears to be very sandy. The builder has stated that he used a 1:4 mix as any stronger would crack the tiles. He's been back around but says it is fine, but i'm still concerned. Any advice please.

Many thanks to everyone who's responded to this question. I'd never used this site before and really wasn't expecting much of it. I'm now using it to find someone to do the pointing work. Thanks again.
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A roofer has called at my house and offered a quote for replacing all ridge tiles. As no obligation I took a quote for ridge tiles plus repointing one chimney & reducing height of a second redundant chimney - £1,700. Seems a lot. Also, not convinced ridge tiles need to be, or ought to be, replaced. Can see gaps at bottom of some of them but all seem sound and no sign of any loose. Chimneys definately need repointing but don't want to fork out that amount for something that may not be necessary. Do you think they may be offering unnecessary work? (For what it's worth, they're a very new company - filed new incorporation documents September 2009 - and are currently doing a lot of roof work on a number of nearby properties)

Hi, I need advise on appointing a worthy contractor to renew my 10 sqm flat roof. The existing felt is completely damaged and suspect underlying timber is damaged too to a certain extent. I've read about alternatives to felt i.e. EPDM and GRP. I've also been advised that I should get an all inclusive quote including renewing timber, boarding, adding insulation, waterproofing and reflective coating and all this should not cost me more than 1500. What do you think I should watch out for in getting this job contracted out and any indication of rough costings would be great. For example I've read in forums that roofing rates can be anywhere between 20 and 40 quid per sq m. Thanks.

The leak goes back 3 years as I paid a builder for the work on the roof and it never went away. This builder has now stopped trading due to ill health and I have decided that I need to sort the leak once and for all and have got in a new builder who has to take off all the roof that was originally fixed to do this job. Last night - at 3am - it startted raining and leaking again after they had put up the new membrane to seal roof and started on the tiles that day, coming through in two places. The most dangerous being through the light in the centre of the room.So this morning when he asked me for some of the money for the job I said no. I don't want to pay a penny until I am 100% sure it is leak free. Am I able to do this or can they insist I pay some of the money before the job has finished?

Thanks for your replies - very helpful! We've had the builder back 2 times but he's failed to fix the leak and he's very difficult to get hold of.
It tends to leak during really heavy rain and the builder said that leaves in the gutter can cause a leak during heavy rain. Is this true? Gutter overflowing?(We do have a lot of tall trees, leaves and pine needles here).

roof tiles are old and I want to avoid having to remove tiles or change roof.
thank you

The house was built with a small extension across the back of it to allow more depth in the kitchen/diner. The roof therefore only extends approx 1.5 meters away from the back wall of the property and runs along 3/4 of the back of the house. As it's the kitchen/diner, it would look lovely to have a glass roof with the ceiling removed above the sink area to let in lots of light, it would also make the dining area feel very spacious and light. I understand there would be a loss of insulation and we'd need to consider high spec glass, I'm just not sure where to even start with a project like this!

Any help/advice would be much appreciated

Thanks