WHEN we think we’re going to have a good summer, the rain usually comes. With this comes the client calls, “Mr Fall, we’ve got a leak and we’ve never had one like this before”. Unfortunately summer leaks are quite common. The warm sunny spell causes our buildings to expand, stretching any tired and brittle finishes to a degree they cannot cope with. The heavy rain finds any small splits or tears and before we know it, the water pours in. The most common culprit is the bituminous felt flat roof. Not only does the building and roof expand, but the felt softens and where it turns up or down at the edges of the roof, it will split. It doesn’t help if someone has walked across the roof during the warm weather and stood on one of the many small blisters that develop. Even worse if they planted a ladder on the flat roof to get up to the windows or Sky dish. Bituminous felt flat roofs are a good economic roof finish but you can’t abuse them. Where the flat roof connects to an adjacent wall, don’t stick the upstand to the wall, build a timber upstand on the edge instead, fixed to the roof and not the wall so you can stick the felt to the upstand. The gap between the wall and the upstand is then covered with a lead flashing. Then when the roof moves it doesn’t pull at the corner. If you must stick the felt to the wall, it should be splayed or curved at the corner to let it stretch and not split. It’s not just felt roofs that give us heat-related problems. Plastic guttering and pipes, poorly supported in the first place, will sag and pull on their joints so the heavy rain leaks out or even pours over the tops. This is particularly the case where the gutters are part-blocked by seeds and blossoms from any adjacent trees. I always recommend gutters to be cleared and checked twice a year, if the house is in an area of large trees. Be particularly watchful of the small rainwater outlets to bay windows. The bay window roofs to Tyneside flats and other Victorian houses, usually have a parapet wall around the edge. This creates a well for seeds, leaves and other debris to build up. The outlet from these roofs is usually a small diameter lead pipe, which blocks up leaving the roof to fill up with rain water. If the water builds up and overflows above the upstands, it will soak into the timber beam which supports the wall across the bay. A nightmare for homeowners is dry rot. I hate to say it but this time of year, coupled with the weather we have had, is just what dry rot ordered! Dry rot is a wood-eating fungus which loves warm and moist conditions. Its growth time is May to September but that is not its only growth time. A small leak on to a timber joist or beam can make the timber vulnerable to the fungus. Too much water and the fungus won’t grow. Add a few dry rot seeds and bingo, it’s away. As it favours dark inaccessible areas, you won’t see dry rot developing until it’s too late. Be alert for possible leaks. Peter Fall is managing director of Clear Building Survey and Former President of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, tel: 0800 072-9003 www.clearbuildingsurvey.co.uk | 
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