I ran into an old friend today who told me about some problems he had/his having with his roof, and I would welcome any advice/comments from anyone here who has any experience with such matters.
He lives in a bungalow, which was built in the sixties, and about two years ago he started having problems with the roof leaking. He got a firm in, who had been recommended to him, to look at it and they advised a new roof - they quoted him £11,000 for the job, including UPVC guttering, soffits, etc, which he agreed to.
The new roof was fitted 18 months ago. At the time he queried the felt they used, which he said was no thicker than wallpaper - whereas the old felt was quite thick - and he was told that this was what everyone used nowadays and that it conformed to the current British Standard. After the new roof was fitted he started getting quite bad condensation problems, so he got the roofing firm back in.
They said that their roof was perfectly ok - but they didn't know what was causing the condensation problem - although they advised fitting ventilation in the soffit area. He had this done but the problems still persisted. Things got so bad that he called in a surveyor, at further cost, who advised fitting ventilation tiles along the ridge. Again he has had this done (by another roofing firm, having lost confidence in the first), at more cost, but things are no better - in fact the new firm said that the ridge tiles hadn't even been fixed properly, so it seems that the first roofers did a fairly poor job anyway.
It is definitely condensation, there are no leaks, and he - understandably - is at his wits end. He is convinced that the problem is caused by the flimsy roofing felt - the sale of which, we understand, has now been discontinued - and I tend to agree with him.
Can anyone offer any advice or hope whatsoever for this poor chap - who, to add to his worries, has just suffered a bereavement (which is why I happened to meet up with him again)?