Does house built in 1900 with refurbished slate roof need ventilation?
Anonymous user 23/02/2024 - 2.39 PM
Hello, we are mid house sale and the buyers surveyor has put some crazy things in the survey (leaves in the gutters!) Something he has brought up is our roof has no ventilation (even though he didn't bother going in the loft space). we have two dormers but the original roof was stripped and recovered by the previous owners in 2001, all beautiful slate. As there was a lot of money spent on the roof then I would assume if ventilation needed doing they would have done it? What can I look for in the roof to see if there is ventilation - does it need it? OUr house sale is being delayed by this survey. The surveyor said our whole living room walls were damp with rising damp - a damp proof specialist said there was no damp at all there or in the cellars. It's a stressful time, our rental property lease starts soon and we will be paying for both properties. Any advice would be great.
Are you a tradesperson and able to answer this question?
without looking it is not possible to say whether their is ventilation in the loft space.
their should be paper work for the dormers if the roof was done at the same time it should have been passed by building control.
would supply the paper work and ask the surveyor what type of ventilation he requires and why
have come across this problem quite often with surveyors who when challenged to explain themselves back track.
their are a lot of cowboy surveyors about who come up with all sort of crap to justify their fee but when challenged are unable to justify their initial reasoning.
its called covering their arse
Answered30 March 2012
1
Anonymous user
ridge vents or slate/tile vents not too costly to install
Answered30 March 2012
0
Anonymous user
If it were me - small fee i would have expert damp proof reading taken various spots were the surveyor has quoted damp, if this reads differ to his findings if he did take measurements and recorded them, then im sure he could re evaluate the situation - as for loft ventilation under todays current regs its in good interest that this area is over the top not only to insulate but to ventilate to eliminate condensation and humidity in the loft area, if its all plasterboarded it would not hurt or cost loads to simply install some eves ventilation strips or discs and few slate vents or ridge vents near the top to allow some cross flow as im pressuming loft is all plastered out with the dormers, in this case it should be insulated even back in 2001 when regs were a little more relaxed - there have been products on the market permeable roofing felts wich to some did not need further or additional ventilation then some would say otherwise, it was marketed and sold as if it didnt need further vents but as with any products this has changed and all roofs now require more ventilation and more insulation to suit current regs. T the gutter you should be able to see some felt to see what has been used - you could argue that if its a permeable felt and this was aceptable back in 2001 then ?
If it were me again id vent the roof to appease something and offer damp readings as you and damp proofer has stated as not an issue - im sure any self respecting surveyor as proffesional as most are can possibly make mistakes after all were not robots and we do all make errors now and again ? as for the leaves a gutter clean out would sort - this would be like an mot station failing my car for being a bit dirty or having some mud on it - bit picky - rog
