Broughs8286

Thanks George! Actually quite excited to do this!

good point about needing a scaffold tower. We might do everything in one go - clean the roof of moss, add eave Coombes and trays, clean the gutters etc. just a roof once over!

Hi George! Thankyou for your reply! Which bits are the noggins? If you’re referring to the little horizontal bits between the rafters, we’ve added those as we were going to box in some of the wasted loft space for birds but have decided against that. If we were to brace, where would we brace? What type of braces would we need?

And can we take out the first road of tiles ourselves? Or do we need a roofer to do that for us?

Thanks Joe! Yes you’re right, better to ask when you don’t know! Do you think we should sister the rafters on the other side so the weight is uniform? I wouldn’t want one side to be reinforced and then the other side to flex more?

Yes stengthened on one side only. No evidence of an issue loft side the other side of where we see a slight sag on the roof. No gaps between the rafters and the ridge. No history of problems on the other houses. Yes I believe this is the original roof material as all our houses are the same. Ridge looks straight from the loft. Should we sister the rafters on the other side just for uniformity and to even out the weight? Can we do this ourselves if we mirror the other side by size or do we need to hire professionals? If we can do it ourselves are there advisable fixings for this job?

No damage to the walls, and no evidence of issues with the rafters on this side (opposite side to the sister rafters talked about in another post). Yes perhaps it’s minimal sag as the person above mentioned but exaggerated in the photo due to lens distortion.

On the right side of our roof, am I seeing some slight sagging or just seeing something that isn’t there? I can see the ridge also kicks up, not sure why.

Oh sure - the birds are already nesting there, accessing the roof through the underneath by the guttering/roof tiles. But you’re right, perhaps bird boxes would be better. How would you go about sealing off all access from outside? Might sound like a daft question

Thanks for your replies so fast! No the roof doesn’t sag on the side with the reinforcements. And no solar panels either. Perhaps someone previously was preparing to have panels then didn’t? no rear extension built either. The little horizontal sections of wood on the other side have been added because we plan to run some mesh down to allow birds to use that dead space but so they don’t run about our loft space.

Hi! The rafters in our loft have been sistered on one side before us and the previous owners. Much to many a dismay we didn’t have a structural survey when we bought the house, just the valuation survey required by the mortgage company. We bought this house very quickly. We’ve not got any or had an issues - our loft is dry, no evidence of dry rot, no signs of warping, no signs of sagging both in the loft and also on the roof so we’re reasonably confident our roof and loft are fine. We’re just unsure why one of the side roof would’ve been sistered? Is it a sign something is wrong? Or was wrong? Would sistering have made this strong enough to do its job? Has the sistering been done properly? We note the sisters don’t extend all the way to the apex - is this correct? Anything we can add to support it? We’re just planning to board out, as we’ve already started to do, for general storage purposes (nothing particularly heavy). We’ve got a chartered surveyor lined up ready to survey the roof and loft should we think it’s a good idea. We just don’t know if we’re worrying over nothing and if you regularly inspect your loft and roof that you’ll notice if and when something is wrong? We have recently had a new water cylinder installed in the loft (associated with our heat pump) but the installers built a wooden platform spanning several joists to spread the weight. What does everyone think?

Just joined the Build Hub! My husband and I are carrying our various bits of DIY so this forum will be so useful! Thankyou in advance for all your helpful advice!