Learning from other peoples mistakes with a dose of common sense.

We had to wait until the spring of 2022 to get back up on the roof to fix the leaking north facing valley gutter.

The emergency tarpaulins and drip tray measures fitted below the roof back in October 2021 managed to stop any further damage to the ceiling below. Having a mild dry winter may also have helped.

The tarps and trays did allow us to confirm that the water leaks were probably coming from both the top and bottom of the valley gutter somewhere. The first task was getting the scaffolding organised.

The original plan was to make the whole building good after sorting the roof leak while we had the scaffolder on site. A task that should have been smother than it has since proven to be. We've opted to just sort the roof out for now and revisit the rest at a later date.

The access scaffolding was installed last week in April. We made a start by removing tiles either side of the valley, top to bottom, to get to the seat of the problem that week.

We knew that a "local builder / roofer" had been paid to make repairs to the roof in the spring of 2021. What we uncovered that first day was quite shocking. What they had done, in their ignorance or ineptitude, had likely made the original leak worse.

We removed enough roof tiles either side of the valley to get to where the original roofing felt was sound. This must be the original covering from when the property was built in the 70s as it is quite brittle. We therefore removed enough tiles to be able to remove the support battens above any damaged felt. This was then removed if knackered, or moved out of the way if sound, to allow for a new membrane to be fitted and tucked up underneath the old.

The old valley trays were taken out to allow us to repair the roof trusses and valley gutter timbers where these had been damaged by water ingress. The rot we repaired indicated that the roof had been leaking below the valley gutter for a number of years. I suspect that the original, possibly lead, valley may have been replaced very badly with fibre glass trays at a time when lead prices were high. This might account for the felt that should sit below the valley tray being in such poor condition or in places simply missing.

The old valley trays also appeared to have been left unsupported from top to bottom with no battens having been fixed along either edge. There were battons running either side of the valley but these were spaced away from gutter tray proving the sides of the tray with no support. It also left a gap between the sides of the tray and the battens which had been filled with rockwool. This may have been an attempt to prevent the upturned edges of the trays cutting into the felt as this had wrongly been fitted over the top of the trays rather than underneath.

The felt should have been placed and overlapped on top of a new strip of felt running from top to bottom immediately below / under the valley gutter trays. The absence of a new membrane ( felt or other ) and the incorrect fitting of the trays were the most likely cause of the leaks.

So the first days work was a discovery day and allowed us to generate a list of supplies which included new valley trays of a more modern design, new roofing battens, more waterproof membrane and a quantity of replacement tiles. The roof was temporarily made watertight and left over the Bank Holiday weekend while we waited for some of these to arrive. It rained but remained leak free.

Half the problem with any problem is understanding what the problem really is.

The repairs therefore proceeded quite quickly once the problem was understood and materials had been acquired.

The last thing done was to remove all of the moss, treat the tiles with a moss inhibitor and repoint all of the ridge tiles before cleaning the gutters.

Some sections of the roof were fitted with new eaves combs where the originals were in such poor condition, brids had been nesting below the tile causing the felt to rot in that area.

The gutters also had to be repositioned as the idiot who had put these in, possibly the same idiot who messed up the valley trays around 20 years ago, had the fall going in the wrong direction back towards the valley rather than towards the down pipe. This explained the heavy build up of green mould on the underside of the soffit immediately below the valley.

DOH!!

A roof is there to keep those inside the building warm and dry. Or at least it should be.

We have a roof that is letting water into the building. That might just be unfortunate were it not for the fact that someone was paid to find the cause and "sort it out" earlier this year.

Here are some photographs of it taken from a ladder last week.

The building is three storeys high so getting up there is not something one wants to do unless one has to. We just had to see if we could spot what the cause of the leak might be.

It's an almost 50 year old roof that appears to be clad in the original concrete roof tiles.

We have been advised ( based on these photos ) that the deep valley gutter suggests that it may have been refelted at some point in the past using a second layer of batons.

An inspection from below, inside the loft, also suggests that the felt below the valley tray may not have been replaced at that time. The tray currently sits on top of a very brittle layer of felt that we assume is part of the original build.

The rotting timbers supporting the valley tray, where they abut between the trusses, also suggests that the water ingress is coming from the top half of the roof or valley gutter and has been doing so for many years.

The following video is a record of this inspection which was carried out during the first week in October 2021. It was shot a couple of weeks after a rain laden major gale had driven in from the North West in late September.

We only noticed that the freshly painted kitchen ceiling was now watermarked with pink staining when doing a final clean and inspection in early October.

Prior to this we had been lead to believe that the roof had been repaired earlier in the year.

Best viewed full screen.

The following video is the final one in a series recorded after the one above. These have been taken while trying to establish the cause of the leak and the severity of it.

A temporary containment solution using tarpaulins and drip trays has been installed to better monitor and contain any ingress until the roof can be fully repaired in the spring of 2022.