Slate roof - losing tiles - expected?
Discussion
We moved into a new build Taylor Wimpey house in May 2013.
Since then, we have had 8 different roof tiles come off and be replaced by the developer.
One time, a tile on the rear of the house flew over to the front an dhit my car on the way down (it was an old Mondeo at the time) which has made us nervous of parking in our own drive when the weather is like it has been the past few days.
There are 2 showhomes, and 6 other houses in an arc on the front of the development.
Every house is missing at least 2/3 tiles at the moment and we have all lost some over the weekend.
When the wind gets up, the noise is incredible, it sounds like the whole roof is flapping about.
Does this sound normal?
The slate roofs do look nice, the houses further into the estate have flat tiles on them and do not appear to suffer from any wind damage at all. Are we sacrificing aesthetics for resilience?
We are thinking about approaching TW to discuss as it is affecting all of us in the front but I wanted to get a feel for whether we are being unrealistic and given the recent storms, is this kind of thing expected to a certain extent.
Since then, we have had 8 different roof tiles come off and be replaced by the developer.
One time, a tile on the rear of the house flew over to the front an dhit my car on the way down (it was an old Mondeo at the time) which has made us nervous of parking in our own drive when the weather is like it has been the past few days.
There are 2 showhomes, and 6 other houses in an arc on the front of the development.
Every house is missing at least 2/3 tiles at the moment and we have all lost some over the weekend.
When the wind gets up, the noise is incredible, it sounds like the whole roof is flapping about.
Does this sound normal?
The slate roofs do look nice, the houses further into the estate have flat tiles on them and do not appear to suffer from any wind damage at all. Are we sacrificing aesthetics for resilience?
We are thinking about approaching TW to discuss as it is affecting all of us in the front but I wanted to get a feel for whether we are being unrealistic and given the recent storms, is this kind of thing expected to a certain extent.
barryrs said:
As said there is something very wrong here.
I assume they are fiber cement slate effect tiles?
If they are heres the Marley Eternit fixing guide - http://www.marleyeternit.co.uk/~/media/Files/Produ...
Might be worth giving the NHBC a call to log the issue as well just in case it gets swept under the carpet.
I have 2 sitting in my garage that came off back in October. To my untrained eye, they look and feel like proper slate - when the labourers have replaced previously, when they dropped one there were shards of material all over the place, thin slithers that again look like slate to me.I assume they are fiber cement slate effect tiles?
If they are heres the Marley Eternit fixing guide - http://www.marleyeternit.co.uk/~/media/Files/Produ...
Might be worth giving the NHBC a call to log the issue as well just in case it gets swept under the carpet.
I will try and take a photo and post up later.
The site manager (who has been pretty good over the first year and a half) said the houses at the front got "proper" slate roofs with board, then felt then slate tiles on top as the designers want the frontage to look the best to try and sell more houses.
I have spoken to my neighbours and we are all in agreement - I am going to type up an initial email and send it to Taylor Wimpey Customer Services. We are going to arrange for an independent inspection from a roofing company as well.
I don't want to report to HSBC just now as it takes things out of TW's hands once we do that so i'll give them a chance to come back to us and see what they say but will escalate to HSBC if required.
Thanks for all your help in this, I suspected this shouldn't be normal but to be honest, i'm an IT bloke, roofing ain't my area!
Cheers.
Oh, and our latest 2 to come off at least have cracked horizontally and come off - you can see where part of the tile still remains underneath the row/tile above but I believe at least one of my neighbours has some with the holesat the top so the whole tile has come off in that case.
The rest of the slates are still in situ - it's like they are cracking and 2/3 or so are coming off, leaving the top 1/3 still below the layer above.
I am hoping the developer will see sense here as we all live on the front arc of the development, right next to both the show homes and sales office.
The site still has 3 years or so to go (at least) and because of good visibility, they will not be moving the showhomes further in as some sites do.
This means the first thing people will se as they drive in is our houses.
If we don't get a satisfactory resolution, i'm sure a few well placed notices could be in order
N.B. The site manager has said this is a problem with these slates as they seem to break with very little movement. He has intimated that it is to be expected - after reading the responses on here, I beg to differ!
I am hoping the developer will see sense here as we all live on the front arc of the development, right next to both the show homes and sales office.
The site still has 3 years or so to go (at least) and because of good visibility, they will not be moving the showhomes further in as some sites do.
This means the first thing people will se as they drive in is our houses.
If we don't get a satisfactory resolution, i'm sure a few well placed notices could be in order
N.B. The site manager has said this is a problem with these slates as they seem to break with very little movement. He has intimated that it is to be expected - after reading the responses on here, I beg to differ!
bennno said:
We had exactly this situation with a slate tiled house with Wimpey. We kept getting slate failures, one narrowly missed our car and others ended up deeply embedded in the back garden.
Was like they weren't used to working with them and trampled all over the roof when fitting them breaking loads, when they came to repair they would strap and glue the replacement but in doing so trample over a load more and then we would see additional failures.
After a lot of complaining they ended up scaffolding our house and getting somebody with more knowledge in to carefully come and check the roof and replace any that they felt were substandard. Probably was about 20 further tiles. After that the failure rate dropped significantly. They also wrote to confirm they would provide a no quibble guarantee on the roof for 5 years and gave us a stack of spares for the garden.
In all honesty in drove us both absolutely bonkers, we never expected repeated issues with a roof on a new house and that in addition to shocking standards of construction which forced us to refit all 3 bathrooms to cure shower leaks / blooming on to surrounding plasterboard which Wimpey had about 3-4 goes in fixing and couldn't. We ended up selling and moving on, as did many of the neighbours.
Bennno
Hiya mate - could you tell me the name of the development? Would be good to keep in my back pocket in case things turn sour.Was like they weren't used to working with them and trampled all over the roof when fitting them breaking loads, when they came to repair they would strap and glue the replacement but in doing so trample over a load more and then we would see additional failures.
After a lot of complaining they ended up scaffolding our house and getting somebody with more knowledge in to carefully come and check the roof and replace any that they felt were substandard. Probably was about 20 further tiles. After that the failure rate dropped significantly. They also wrote to confirm they would provide a no quibble guarantee on the roof for 5 years and gave us a stack of spares for the garden.
In all honesty in drove us both absolutely bonkers, we never expected repeated issues with a roof on a new house and that in addition to shocking standards of construction which forced us to refit all 3 bathrooms to cure shower leaks / blooming on to surrounding plasterboard which Wimpey had about 3-4 goes in fixing and couldn't. We ended up selling and moving on, as did many of the neighbours.
Bennno
Update after roof inspection:
The following is the content of the roof inspection report:
While on site a full inspection was carried out to the property where access was gained to the roof via steel ladders for safe working platforms all in accordance with current health and safety regulations.
1)The roof to the property is a Spanish slated roof and in keeping with other properties in the area, all rainwater goods are of black Plastic Rhone’s surrounding the property and are in good condition, the roof slates are a uniform 16” x 10” pitched style set in several part sections and would benefit from an overhaul of only 2 repairs required, the roof has a breathable under slating felt in place which fully overhangs at eaves level into new Rhone’s, all Spanish roof slates are double nailed and most parts are well slated tight and secure.
2)All continuous dry verge units to the property requires more fixings in place, while on site I was able to move this dry verge unit quiet easily where Mr XXXXXX explained that this noise was a familiar to the sound he has been experiencing late at night. (When the outside temp drops below zero, we often get creaking noises occuring, very disconcerting and regular).
3)While on site a full inspection was also carried out to all zinc ridge units which were found to be in good condition, these were found to have the correct amount of heavy duty ridge brackets installed ( four per length) however the “tapper course” or last course of Spanish roof slates are only single head nailed, these were turned under the zinc ridge and very easy to lift up slightly, this was not as the rest of the roof slates were found to be and require double nailing and clipping to prevent further damage occurring This would explain the "chattering teeth" noise we get when the wind gets up to gale force
4)There are two GRP valley gutters to the property and both look to be in good condition with no problems or damaged areas visible.
Overall the roof to the property will require all zinc ridge units removed to allow for new tapper courses of roof slates to be renewed with a double nailing and clipping technique applied, all verge units will require more fixings to secure to prevent noise levels internally.
I will send this report onto Taylor Wimpey and see what they say. We had 2 houses inspected and these issues were evident on both so safe to assume they will be affecting all 6 properties in the street.
The following is the content of the roof inspection report:
While on site a full inspection was carried out to the property where access was gained to the roof via steel ladders for safe working platforms all in accordance with current health and safety regulations.
1)The roof to the property is a Spanish slated roof and in keeping with other properties in the area, all rainwater goods are of black Plastic Rhone’s surrounding the property and are in good condition, the roof slates are a uniform 16” x 10” pitched style set in several part sections and would benefit from an overhaul of only 2 repairs required, the roof has a breathable under slating felt in place which fully overhangs at eaves level into new Rhone’s, all Spanish roof slates are double nailed and most parts are well slated tight and secure.
2)All continuous dry verge units to the property requires more fixings in place, while on site I was able to move this dry verge unit quiet easily where Mr XXXXXX explained that this noise was a familiar to the sound he has been experiencing late at night. (When the outside temp drops below zero, we often get creaking noises occuring, very disconcerting and regular).
3)While on site a full inspection was also carried out to all zinc ridge units which were found to be in good condition, these were found to have the correct amount of heavy duty ridge brackets installed ( four per length) however the “tapper course” or last course of Spanish roof slates are only single head nailed, these were turned under the zinc ridge and very easy to lift up slightly, this was not as the rest of the roof slates were found to be and require double nailing and clipping to prevent further damage occurring This would explain the "chattering teeth" noise we get when the wind gets up to gale force
4)There are two GRP valley gutters to the property and both look to be in good condition with no problems or damaged areas visible.
Overall the roof to the property will require all zinc ridge units removed to allow for new tapper courses of roof slates to be renewed with a double nailing and clipping technique applied, all verge units will require more fixings to secure to prevent noise levels internally.
I will send this report onto Taylor Wimpey and see what they say. We had 2 houses inspected and these issues were evident on both so safe to assume they will be affecting all 6 properties in the street.
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