For months and months we have been having roof problems, resulting in rainwater entering the tower via the enormous great hole in the tank base in which the lift and stairway to the roof room are located. It has been exceedingly difficult to discover the exact place or places where the rain has been coming in.
We think that the main cause was an incorrectly fitted junction between the roof room and the original roof. A 'skirt' of EPDM* which had been intended to sit on the outside of the fibreglass roof up-stand was in fact located behind it. Initially, this would not have been a problem as seals between the glass windows of the roof room bottoms were good when new. Over time however, water had seeped past them in places, allowing small amounts of water to gradually accumulate in the tank base plates. Those, by their very nature, were totally watertight so the water was trapped with nowhere to go. Base plates below and water (and largely air-tight) roof above.
Over the years the level of the trapped water had risen until it reached the timber defences around the stair and lift well. Those defences eventually rotted in places, as did most of the roof supporting timbers below. All was well during dry weather but after heavy rain larger and larger amounts of water came in, to be caught recently in an ever increasing quantity of receptacles on the lounge floor by the stair and lift well.
We eventually crossed the Rubicon and ripped up parts of the fibreglass roof to discover the awful truth that its supporting timbers needed total replacement. So, a replacement roof was urgently needed - in winter! Meantime the tower was left exposed to whatever Mother Nature dropped on it.
A very long and tedious story but considerable internal damage had been caused and we have claimed on our household insurance. Praise be, we are with NFU Mutual insurance and have been for years. They would cover everything inside but we were on our own with the replacement roof of course.
Flat roofers do not abound in Settle, let alone a roofer with the experience and willingness to tackle this unusual and difficult job. We eventually found a Leeds roofer, Jack Towell, who was up for the job , enthusiastically. For the past fortnight Jack and his team have been hard at it, removing the existing roof (three large skips full of it) and replacing it. Here is yesterday's view of the rain ingress area, now covered with osb boards, ready to be covered by thick EPDM* Firestone rubber roofing, starting today.
The second picture shows the same roof view but with fillets of timber edging, ready for the EPDM* layer to be glued down.
* EPDM is Ethylene Propylene Diene terpolymer Membrane (you may thank me one day for that if it ever crops up in a pub quiz)
We did however discover that there are hundreds of suppliers out there, all anxious to sell you extra panels and batteries galore. Our panels are on an advantageous tariff called FIT - Feed In Tariff. Extra panels would have to go on another tariff, SEG. Further complications arose because we are lucky' enough to be on three phase mains electricity. We would require a smart meter which we were told we could not have on three phase. It was all getting a bit confusing at a time when we could well do without it.
