Detecting roof problems before it is too late

Try to view the house on both wet and dry days. Wet covers up things such as variances in the colour of mortar and can hide staining on outside walls - but it can also show up leaks in pitched and flat roofs as well as damaged guttering.

Look at the obvious first. Does the house sit square, or is it sagging, leaning or tilting? These problems are particularly common in the Lincolnshire fens - normal foundations are not up to the job and the whole place gradually sinks into the soft fen soil. The cure for this is to underpin the whole building or to get it onto a concrete raft either way it is going to cost you a lot of money.
Very old repairs need not spell trouble

Very early buildings are often saggy. Learn to take a view on this, as it can be part of an older property's inherent charm. Ancient movement is going to be obvious; the repairs will be visibly in period and you can generally reckon that if it hasn’t shifted in the last 200 years or so, it is not going to move during your tenure. Consider too what potential future purchasers may think.

Obviously recent repairs are more worrying. If rectification work looks new you are going to want to know that it has been done properly and that there are guarantees in place.

Roof problems

Thatch gives many people palpitations but need not be too terrifying. There are three types of thatching material; Norfolk reed is the best type and the longest lasting, and can get down to about 6 thick without leaking. A tatty reed roof with sufficient remaining thickness can be raked and cleaned up by a competent thatcher and goes from looking terrible to being very smart with very little money invested. The two remaining types are wheat reed (actually a type of specially grown straw) and long straw. These types of thatch need much more thickness to remain watertight. They can be patched but never look very good after this. More often the main thatch is fine but the ridge at the top of the house is beginning to wear.

This is because it is not at the steep angle that the sides of the roof are, so water sits in it and it rots away. The ridge is always made of straw even if the roof is reed, as only straw is flexible enough for ridge construction. Expect to replace several ridges during the life of the main thatch. Thatched listed buildings are a double edged sword: you cannot change the type of roofing even upgrading from say wheat reed to Norfolk reed won’t be allowed but there are grants available for listed buildings to help with re-thatching.

Beware trees over 10 metres high less than 10 metres away from the property: they may mean that the property is uninsurable or that premiums will be heavily loaded. Slate and tile roofs are usually easy: holes can be simply patched and even complete retiles are not that expensive compared to getting a thatcher out.

Doing it yourself is eminently possible. What you are looking for is damaged or rotted batons under the tiles again not a huge problem, but it does mean stripping a reasonable area to repair the substructure.

Saggy roof ridges

These are often a problem. The worry is that a saggy or undulating ridge can indicate that the roof joists have started to open up and spread. A standard roof joist is triangular in shape and the horizontal bottom runner ties the two sloping sides together and stops them from spreading when the weight of the roofing materials is on them. Go into the attic of a modern house and you will be walking on the lower roof joists which make up the floor. You cannot get to the sides of the room because the slope of the roof prevents you from doing so. A house that uses the roof space as accommodation often has some wall area before the sloping roof starts to impede movement. This means of course that the roof joists cannot be tied together at the bottom they will be just above the flat area in the ceiling.

Mechanically this is less than perfect and the joists should have been tied into the walls to give extra strength and resistance to spreading. Sometimes they are not, especially in poorly executed loft conversions - they start to spread and you are in potential trouble. It means taking the roof off and rectifying.

Once again, very old properties may have some sag in their roofs, which is just the timbers settling over time. You are looking for gaps where timbers should obviously be joined together - if it all looks tight and the timbers have just bowed without splitting, you should be OK. You may also find ancient tie bars running across the building to pull things together these were a common fix and are nothing to worry about.

Roofing problems are very rare, but are the hardest problem to find in the house; sometimes they get spotted right at the last minute, or unfortunately when the house is verging on falling apart. Do not fear though, as most problems have a simple solution without burning a hole in your savings. If you consider doing it yourself to save a few pounds, then it may be wise to research the best methods and hire in someone with a little experience to check the work is sound and safe. Do not forget to cover up all your belongings if your loft has been converted, whether it is temporary roof protection to protect the laminate flooring or dust sheets to protect your ornaments.

Alternatively you can hire in the experts and get it done professionally for a little bit more money, not only will this guarantee a professional job, but the work usually comes with a nice guarantee.