A mammoth undertaking

Well, three burly tattooed roofers have been here all week, fixing the roof of the extension, and their verdict is now in. A damp-proof course has been fitted under the bottom tile, all the way around the roof, to stop water soaking in to the barge boards. It doesn’t look much different to before, but should cure the underlying problem.

One gable end has been particularly badly affected by the poorly-constructed roof, as my painter suspected. The woodwork on left hand side of the gable is sopping wet, as water has been dripping onto it and soaking in, rather than flowing into the gutters. There is a bit of wet rot, but that is apparently easily dealt with. The builders have added some more leading to throw the rainwater away from the woodwork into the gutter, and that should solve the problem at source. The wood will (eventually) dry out, and is otherwise sound.

The bigger problem is with the right hand side of the gable. The same design flaw with the roof has led to the woodwork getting saturated, but in this case dry rot has set in. And that apparently is nasty. If the infected wood is not cut out and replaced, the fungal spores will spread and cause significantly more damage. The foreman tells me that currently the problem is contained, and that is partly due to the fact that the extension is built largely of stone, which is impervious to dry rot. The plan is to replace all the infected wood, fix the underlying problem with additional leading, and repaint the repaired sections. So the team will be back tomorrow (Saturday) and possibly into next week too.

They also found yet another dodgy construction on the roof – some lead flashing on the other side of the extension was incorrectly positioned and therefore not watertight. Although I’ve not spotted any leaks as a result, it’s apparently only a matter of time. Fortunately the dubious leading was spotted by the foreman, not by the boss who had given me the original quote. I’d asked the boss to check over the roof and quote to fix all visible problems, and he’d completely missed that one! So he agreed to fix it for me for free, given that the men were here all week anyway. That’s a bonus.

I’ve had a very busy week at work, and was rather hoping for a bit of a lie-in tomorrow. But that won’t be happening if I’ve got builders turning up for 9am! At least they take Sundays off……