Hi, I'm new to this site and would be grateful for some advice. I found damp in a corner of my spare bedroom where the chimney breast meets it. Called in 3 roofers, all not sure but thought the back lead guttering needed repair. One did this, repointed where necessary and then waterproofed the brickwork. (A big beam in my loft was clearly very damp and the water had been tracking along it to come out in the bedroom - you could see the white effloresense). All was OK for several weeks but lately we've had loads of rain and I went up to check the corner. It was wet again! I h ave rung the company that charged me nearly £1000 (access is difficult - it needed towers and boarding) to come and look at it. However, I don't think they know where the water is coming from either! The house is 1936 and we have a LOT of weather in our bit of the south west, full on wind and rain! It was fine for the first 9 years we've been here, but we want to move next year - help!
We did take two digital pics when the scaffolding was up, but they showed nothing out of the ordinary - lead flashing in place, pointing fixed, no obvious problems according to the company.
Inside we've had loft insulation and I can't now get to the end of the loft where the wet beam is located next to the chimney.
I will try to get inside loft space with crawl boards this w/e as will need help, and take pics. Don't have the outside ones as they were taken with company's digital cam - but can ask if they kept them.
Can you get a strong light and zoom in from the hatch, or is it out of sight. The same with the outside a zoomed in general pic, would be better than none.
It's well out of sight - far end of loft, in dark, but will take strong torch and use flash and take as many as I can. Outside will need double ladder if company don't have pics - really hard to access it and see anything really.
horrible problem this..
does "roof is not felted but is boarded" mean theres horizontal boards running along the top edges of the rafters? e.g cross battened eternit slate/asbestos shingle/standard slate..
if this is the case finding a leak is going to be almost impossible from the inside although you could try the old hosepipe trick if you have a decent triple ladder...
get on the ladder with the hosepipe and start just behind the chimney just above the back gutter with a steady stream keeping about a metre wide for 2 minutes...
have a spotter inside who will bell your mobile the second anything appears..
if nothing for 2 minutes move vertically upwards towards the ridge line 1m and wait 2 minutes again... keep going like this till you reach the ridge...
it just might give you an idea of the location and at least you know where to start stripping..
