Welcome, Guest. Please Login or Register
Welcome To Ask The Trades!
Mar 19th, 2024, 8:24am
Quote: A conscience is what hurts when all your other parts feel so good.


Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send Topic Print
roof timber cracking ? is it safe (Read 7222 times)
pigz09
GDPR opt-out









roof timber cracking ? is it safe
Feb 27th, 2015, 4:30pm
 
hello i have noticed some cracking in the roof space of my house. could anyone tell me if this is safe because it looks as if the crack is getting worse and causing other timber to crack.in my gallery you can see the first picture is the timber with the worse crack . the second picture shows where that timber runs to and the 3rd you can just see the timber behind starting to crack . thanks in advance for any replys . i should mention there are two sections to the roof one at the rear and the apex coming off this going forward ill try and get a photo uploaded so you can see what i mean.

Image 1Image 2Image 3
Image 4
Back to top
 
 
IP Logged
 
woodsmith
Global Moderator
Trade Member
Author
*****
Offline


Posts: 4395


Total Thanks: 135
For This Post: 0


Gender: male

Trade: Joiner

Re: roof timber cracking ? is it safe
Reply #1 - Feb 28th, 2015, 9:26am
 
This doesn't look good and I would get someone in to look at the problem asap. Although it is difficult to tell from the photos it looks like the wood is consistently wet throughout the loft, this is a sure sign of condensation forming within the roof space. This is caused by too little ventilation in the loft and too much warm moist air getting into the loft from the house. This problem is made worse when you add insulation if a vapour barrier is not fitted under the insulation.

If you have or know someone who has an electrical multimeter, ( a simple one is cheap to buy) set it on ohms and push the two leads into the timber, if you get a reading then the wood is wet, dry timber will measure infinite resistance and wood in the loft should be dry.

If the wood is completely dry it may mean that the roof just needs a couple of braces around the cracks, if the wood is wet enough to have weakened then you could have a much bigger (expensive) problem to deal with.

Back to top
 
Thank User For This Post View members image gallery  
IP Logged
 
pigz09
Re: roof timber cracking ? is it safe
Reply #2 - Mar 1st, 2015, 4:38pm
 
Hello thank you for your reply . I can confirm that the timbers are dry . It's just the way the photos look that makes it look dsmp .
Back to top
 
Thank User For This Post  
IP Logged
 
CWatters
Super Member
*****
Offline

"Daddy fick it" says James

Posts: 5150


Total Thanks: 58
For This Post: 0


Gender: male

Re: roof timber cracking ? is it safe
Reply #3 - Mar 1st, 2015, 6:02pm
 
I agree with woodsmith. Get someone to look at the cracks. I suspect it's not a difficult job to fix so if someone tells you the whole roof has to come off get a second opinion.
Back to top
 
Thank User For This Post View members image gallery  
IP Logged
 
big_all
Global Moderator
Trade Member
Author
*****
Offline

heeelllooo
Posts: 5596


Total Thanks: 10
For This Post: 0


Gender: male

Trade: Joiner



Re: roof timber cracking ? is it safe
Reply #4 - Mar 4th, 2015, 8:21pm
 
have they replaced lighter tiles with heavy concrete tiles ??
Back to top
 

big all ---------------  we are all still learning
Thank User For This Post View members image gallery  
IP Logged
 
Lectrician
Administrator
Trade Member
Author
*****
Offline

Ask The Trades
Posts: 8814


Total Thanks: 108
For This Post: 0


Braunton, North Devon, United Kingdom
Braunton, North Devon
United Kingdom

Gender: male

Trade: Electrician



Re: roof timber cracking ? is it safe
Reply #5 - Mar 17th, 2015, 7:25am
 
They do look like heavy concrete tiles where the neighbours are perhaps slates? Difficult to tell from pic.
Back to top
 

Need to post a picture? Click HERE for info!
Thank User For This Post WWW View members image gallery  
IP Logged
 
Natedog
Full Member
***
Offline

Ask The Trades
Posts: 343


Total Thanks: 9
For This Post: 0


Swindon, United Kingdom
Swindon
United Kingdom


Re: roof timber cracking ? is it safe
Reply #6 - Jul 6th, 2015, 10:51pm
 
I live in a 1930s built ex council house.  The roof is a similar style, and many of the houses in the street have had to have steel rsj added to support the (don't know the correct name) sticky out bit of roof at the front, as original timbers weren't big enough to carray the weight. Don't know if this is the problem or not.  Was only a thought. ..
Back to top
 
Thank User For This Post WWW View members image gallery  
IP Logged
 
Page Index Toggle Pages: 1
Send Topic Print