First post in the series: Glass Fiber Flat Roof

Anyone who's followed my intermittent posts (sorry very busy with my consulting work and I’ve hurt my hip, so work ground to a slow crawl) will know we had our flat roofs replaced by a local company and then we had a few problems.

We eventually got things sorted, unfortunately among the flat roofs started initially to leak (or maybe more likely been leaking for ages, but took a bit to exhibit via a damaged ceiling).

We now have a large flat roof over a 2 story kitchen extension, the roof system involved replacing the roof boards (though with this roof we consented to let them overboard what looked like good quality OSB board) after which fiberglassing on the new wood. Fiberglass is used on boats, so in theory, should really be a lot better than a flat felt roof.

Not sure if poor quality work or poor design, but because the join amongst the flat roof, while the main building wasn’t sealed correctly water falling off a greater roof, was finding it is way into the property from two points!!

The company had added rendering strip regarding the existing wall to redirect water out of the joins, but underneath this rendering strip, water could splash into the opening amongst the roof plus the wall.

In 90% of properties, I guess this wouldn't be a problem, but we now have a dormer flat roof which water pours from when it rains in excess. The water drops 2 stories, so significant splashing is inevitable.

I fixed this by filling the gaps with mortar, but it really should not have happened.

Will need some photos as the above is difficult to explain.

Suffice to state we needed to remove another ceiling that got wet, one which the theory is that we didn't need certainly to remove, though glad we have since we found a previous roof replacement had left LOTS of the old roofing material including the stone chips in the plasterboard (the extra weight may cause the ceiling to fail, so better dealt with now)!!!!

First post in the series: Glass Fiber Flat Roof

One of several people who own this company came to your house on Monday, showed him the lower associated with two flat dormer roofs that were done wrong.

He tried to convince me the roofs will be fine, apparently wet mushy roofing boards with black mold on it is fine, our children are going to be sleeping within these rooms so it's far from fine!!

It was obvious from his approach he knew it was done badly, when something is acceptable, that you do not agree with little to no argument to rip it all out and begin again without additions payment (I wouldn't anyway). Although I experiencedn't paid yet, to ensure that was probably a factor.

Anyway, his explanation was the roofers will have over boarded the roofs after cleaning regarding the old felt (like they did in the first roof), and so they must have missed the significant damage because of the height (4 storey high) and wind!

Sounds like bullshit in my experience, so at this stage I'm not impressed or convinced utilizing the explanation, the way in which I notice it is I am off site a couple of days and they bodge the rest of the job assuming we might never find the problem!!

He said he would call me later that day or even the day after.

As a side note, the medial side panels one of many roofers said they could add was not put into the sides of this roofs. Oh well :-(

BTW have misplaced the digital camera (probably in a pile of tools during the house), so can not take any images!!!!!

Recently I bought a five-cup Kenmore drip brewer (model 80509) to replace a classic ten-cup Nikko brewer I would been using for a couple of months already. Although this particular model does come with a plastic mesh filter, I decided to use paper filters. For example, they are easier to clean. I simply get rid of the paper filter and wash just the carafe and the filter basket itself.

However, there seems to be a disadvantage, and that is my brew now usually lighter and less bitter. I favor my coffee bitter. I often drink it black or just with one sugar.

Brewing with a paper filter produces clear, light-bodied coffee, which is free from sediments, but lacking in several of coffee's oils and essences, which are trapped into the paper filter.

I found an interesting discussion over at the coffee forum, that has been mostly about how precisely paper filters did produce less bitter coffee. However, if you're a tree hugger, then I think you would rather lessen your carbon footprint and choose the plastic filter instead of the disposable paper ones.

Frankly, I really do want my coffee strong, as a case of preference and often a necessity (i must put in long hours during the night writing and managing blogs). With my old brewer, I had found steps to make that perfect brew (right number of coffee grinds, right model of coffee, the right quantity of water). But at this time I'm still experimenting.

The roofers from local company are on location. They were booked when it comes to 6th April, but the rain had delayed a previous job so that they weren’t in a position to start on our flat roofs (we now have 4 flat roofs!) until Monday 10th.

I’m glad they called us about the delays the day before, since there isn't a phone at the house and I also apparently the only person in the united kingdom not to ever own a mobile phone :-) (never needed one) so would have been in the house the other day waiting for non-existent roofers, that may have been fun (so thanks for the phone call Rooftec, appreciated).

Roofers do glass fiber flat roofing that will be guaranteed for 50yrs that will be much, superior to anything else we looked over, next best was around 25 years guarantee, however with a standard felt flat roof we’d be lucky if it lasted 15 years, probably a lot less since we are within walking distance of the sea (salt floating around). Then when the task is completed we have to have a watertight fiberglass flat roof for a long time in the future.

Interestingly the company quote for all four flat roofs was lower than some of the quotes for standard felt roofing, one roofer did not quote for the leading dormer window (which is two windows in one single, so around 5M in total) also it was still higher priced than that which we are paying company and therefore bloke did not include replacing boards if required (that would be extra!!). Therefore we've upgraded the quality of our flat roofs to glass fiber for no more than a standard felt roof.

Anyway, a couple of roofers arrived early Monday morning, they started with all the large flat roof throughout the kitchen/dining room extension (it is a two-story extension with kitchen/diner in the bottom as well as 2 bedrooms above). This is exactly what it looked like ahead of the roofers started any work (image below).

They scraped the old felt off the roof to see the state of the boards below, if the boards were damaged they'd replace them, or even they would overboard with sterling OSB boards. The stripped boards looked good with no signs and symptoms of water damage and mold or anything untoward.

Therefore the roofers over-bordered with new Sterling OSB boards. Quite happy that the original OSB boards aren't damaged because it means just a little extra insulation having it over-boarded.

They'd cut the original wood sides of the roof flat (so that the roof was completely flat) so they really could add pre-fabricated fiber-glass molded edging (not sure what it really is called). This gave the leading edge, left edge and also the joins with the rest of your home including underneath the window I happened to be using the photos from (while you consider the image below) an increasing lip, so rainwater can only flow through the right edge to the guttering.

After which it they coated the roof in fiberglass matting with a few sorts of polyester resin (see above). This makes the roof watertight, yet not pretty to look at.

As it was far too late to start another flat roof that day (this is on Monday) and additionally they needed to wait for the resin to set before they are able to put the decorative coating within the waterproofed roof they called it each day.

On Tuesday morning roofers was on-site and already working by the time we arrived. It was a really windy day (and rained later), so they didn’t would you like to start the 3 remaining roofs (it really is a 4 story high building!), so that they added rendering strips (the home walls are rendered) towards the roof they worked on Monday so we can blend the rendering in later. Forgot to take a photograph on Tuesday (doh!), so will get that on Friday once I go next.

Surely got to obtain the car MOT’d Thursday since it ran out the other day (I completely forgot!) so can not go tomorrow (needed to work today, Wednesday as well)!.

I have to say so far I'm very impressed with the work, therefore, the roofers, three roofers from Rooftec thus far (very friendly and polite). On Tuesday I happened to be showing one of those the internal damage due to water leakage etc and was discussing possible difficulties with the sides for the dormer windows (two of the next three roofs are on dormer windows) and though it is not covered by the quote we got, he said they could add some side panels to avoid further problems, which will be great because it saves me another job and possible expense.

Can't wait to observe how they have got on with the remaining roofs and can post about any of it when I have the time and images.