My roof is leaking

Accomodation, House and Garden
1
Hi

I own a small flat roofed house and seem to have some water damage (flaking plaster / mould). Does anybody know a contractor that I could call to come and have a look?

I've had a look around but couldn't find any suggestions. Any ideas would be really appreciated.

thank you

2
Flat roofs are always an issue, first thing to check is the drains & gutters are not blocked

3
Although I had the similar issue, I can't recommend anyone for a simple reason: 2 contractors from different companies (1 small local firm and 1 big federal service provider) were both bad. They charged for the inspection and suggested/recommended/quoted not just unnecessary, but even wrong repairs. Can't name the companies due to local defamation laws.

I ended up fixing the bulge causing water retention and several cracks in the cover material myself.

4
I can't recommend a company either as the one we used incorrectly worked out where the leak was.

We still have the leak and when we have a few days without rain, I'll work it out myself in a more logical fashion.

5
I'll add my voice to the chorus:

The company we hired did shockingly poor work.

OH got fed up and fixed the roof himself.

Seems to be a theme developing here. I suspect that work on a single family home is too small a job for many firms around here, they would rather work on large projects/depelopments. So I suspect we got the company's less competent employees. Very frustrating.

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You could try putting a bid out on Renovero, see if any local firms might be interested in the job. At least firms that are active on renovero in theory are open to working smaller jobs.

https://www.renovero.ch

You must do your due diligence, though.

And make sure you understand if the quote for the job is gratis, or if you must pay for that. And make sure you understand if the offer is binding, or not - and what constitutes acceptance. Do nothing verbally, everything should be in writing only so you have a paper trail. There are several sad threads where people have made some very expensive mistakes.

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I hope you have a better experience than we did.

6
The reason why the DIY approach works as it's often not obvious, so you try something, then try again till the water stops getting in.

I remember after my parents built an extension in 1967, following year the roof leaked the architect had no idea why. I spent the afternoon with a hose pointing at various parts of the roof until water started to drip inside, great fun for a 6 year old

7
That's what the professionals do to. The problem is that if they slop water everywhere to begin with, it will eventually find it's way down to the hole and come in. That doesn't mean the last place at which they pointed the hose is where the hole is.

The correct way would be to do one area at a time, ensuring the other areas do not get wet and then waiting for a time before moving on to the next area.

I appreciate that this takes time but surely it's worth doing properly, or not at all.

8
Thats basically what we did & why it took the entire afternoon.

9
Thanks all......sounds like I need to be careful here......