What questions to ask roofers on replace felt - possibly entire roof & few timber?
Anonymous user 23/02/2024 - 3.05 PM
I believe there are a lot of honest and highly professional roofers / builders out there. But there are always a few bad apples giving your profession bad name.
We are first-time buyers and the 3 beds semi house (6.7metres X 7.3metres, highest point of the pitch apprx. 3m), we are buying, having problem with the roof (see my recent post yesterday including photos). Hence, we need to re-prioritise to have roofing work done first. We are not going for the cheapest but a reasonable quote for a good quality proper job to last another 40-50 years. Unfortunately, neither of us have any knowledge regarding the roofing construction and how to know whether proper work been carried out without cutting corners
Please could you guys kindly give me some pointers what questions to ask and documents to check the roofers as you would expect any roofers to have the same high standard as yours.
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Does the roofer must be a member of NFRC or similar?
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Can we wait until the job completed to satisfactory to make payment? Is paying in cash a sign of bad apples?
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Also, can we withhold % of total price to make sure the roof watertight over the rainy season as I think it's hard to know if it was done in the dry season?
What is a reasonable amount or % to withhold?
So many thanks in advance
M.
Are you a tradesperson and able to answer this question?
Hi
Let’s start with the photos; what you see hanging down between the rafters is building paper wich was communally used from the 1930’s until after the war when tar based and plastic felt started to be used however there are a number of ‘let’s say’ people with no moral fibre will/have used building paper as underlay, the paper has become brittle and cannot support its own weight between the rafters and rips.
I believe the tiles are ether a Redland Renown or a Marley Ludlow Major, the batten which the tiles are hung on and nailed to dose not show signs of rot and I would assume that the roof s not leaking as you have not mentioned any signs of water penetration on your comments (an inspection would be advantages to clarify the above as I am only working on the pictures).
So not to bore you there are thousands of roofs out there with no felt underlay and are doing what they are designed to do “if it ain't broke don’t fix it” to coin a phrase.
Word and mouth is the best way to find a decent trades person, asking questions when you have little knowledge of the subject may not help as the person could have retrieved this information from literature not from experience. As for membership of a federation is not a sign of being a reputable roofer half the time they become members just so they can use the logo and have to pay a lot of money for the privilege. If you decide to have the roof replaced or having new felt and batten and reuse the existing tiles you are the client and you are paying for a service, so when you asks for quotes you can stipulate for example; a 90 day payment period, 90% on completion remainder after 90 days I must stress that you must make this clear when the company come to measure up.
If you wish to pay in cash you may however you will/may not get a receipt but make sure you get a guarantee!
Hope this helps.
Pete
Born Roofing
