If you are going to get ripped off by builders, the three prime areas where you will get screwed are Roofs, Damp Courses and Tarmac (see above). And whoever invented flat roofs was either an idiot or a devious roofing contractor - both probably.
The problem is that nobody likes climbing up onto sloping roofs. When I was young and fit, I was working on a four storey block of flats that I had foolishly bought (residential rentals are a nightmare - don't go there). There was a guy working on next door's roof and he came over to me and explained that I had a really serious problem with my roof.
Now as it happened, when I was 16 I got a job working as a roof repairer in the Summer holidays. This was in the days when only sissies wore hard hats and falling off roofs was just part of being a builder. The idea that you would put up scaffolding was ludicrous. You just shinned up the ladder and got on with it. So that is what I did.
As I started climbing up his forty foot ladder, with him behind me, the problem got less and less serious, apparently. So when we reached the apex of the roof, it seemed the problem was actually very trivial. Funny that - most problems get worse as you look more closely but roofs are an exception to that rule.
One of the things I had learned as a roofer was that if you have some ridge tiles missing, all you do is walk along to next door and take a few off their roof and put them on yours. This is very quick and easy to do. You then knock on next door's front door and tell them that they have missing ridge tiles. Using this technique, you could "repair" twenty or thirty roofs in a couple of hours. You could probably "repair" an entire town in a week. At a few hundred pounds per job - not bad money.
And that is what he had done to me - bastard
Flat roofs are usually very easy to get onto - I was on one last week (August 2019). All we did was walk up a staircase and out onto the roof where we gazed at the usual swimming pool and asked the usual questions - where and how does this drain away and where did all this crap come from? And what happens if there is microscopic leak that is impossible to find? Usually caused by old age and continual expansion and contraction as it gets hot and cold (I blame Global Warming).
Well, what happens is that the ceiling below falls down and in due course you get terrible dry rot and have to pull the building down and start again. And this time put a proper roof on it.
A few years ago I owned a 6,000 sq ft office building in Leighton Buzzard called Lavelles House. As it happens, Rightmove started life in Lavelles House as my tenant ( I assumed they were a moving company) but they are not the guilty party in this story.
One day I got an email explaining that there was a very serious problem with the roof and it would cost £30,000 to put it right (experts had clambered all over it, apparently). So, I did what I usually do in these circumstances and asked John and Jimmy to take a look. So they drove down in their van from Liverpool and at 2pm John phoned me and explained that they had found the problem - the chimney flashings were not properly connected so the water just poured in.
When I asked for a cost and time estimate he explained that they had already fixed it and were on their way home.
Bob Cory
Modified on 20/09/2019 at 07:32:14 by ℗ Bob Cory