Restoration & Refurbishment

Leak in house: what order to do work to find cause?

Anonymous user 01/03/2024 - 2.59 PM

Hello, we have a leak in the corner and along ceiling - wall joints in our dining room. It's below a recently re-felted flat roof. We have been advised that the cause is the old coping stones on the roof, which serves as a balcony. A roofer came to start the job of removing the coping stones but they wouldn't budge. He said the tool he'll need to use to get them off could cause the bricks below to be damaged and he didn't want to do that as he's not a brickie. We can see that a lot of the bricks below the balcony desperately need repointing, particularly in the corner where the leak is worst. We're wondering whether to start by having the bricks repointed, seeing if that fixes the leak and if not, moving onto the coping stones. Issue is, we could get the repointing done and if it doesn't fix it, we'd potentially damage the newly repointed bricks when the coping stones are removed. We're also not sure what trade we need. Is this a general building job given the task of removing the coping stones or will most bricklayers do that part of it? We also need felt to be installed under the coping stones, so that requires a roofer. All-in-all, we're a bit stuck on best course of action. Any advice welcome!