Alton , Staffordshire
A recent 2022 Summer restoration to this Amdega Conservatory, the quoted 1st phase was to stop the leaks at various points around the conservatory from the Vents, Side Frames, and Guttering. After this phase was started it was noticeable to the fact that there were lots of further issues with the conservatory roof, gable, and side frames. and all hidden by sealants and paint as usual.
This has to be one of the worst of its kind for the size of the conservatory that I have ever worked on to have so many mistakes on it, especially for its age all done by fitters and the repair companies that have previously worked on it.
(01) The ridge was completely rotten in places and cracked through in areas and had been filled with sealant and then covered up with an aluminum capping from another outside company which wasn't sealed anywhere just fixed with some poly top nails at the sides, allowing water to egress into the ridge plate below the ridge.
Solution: Replace the existing ridge with 2 new machined and painted Canadian Western Red Cedar ridges, remove all of the existing sealants that were all over the underside of the ridges and ridge plates, and router out the rebate to the top of the ridge plates to remove all of the existing sealants and water damaged debris, Prime up all bare timber and then fit the new ridges.
(this is the new ridge fitted with the finial )
and the ridge itself was installed in 3 pieces with little to no sealant between the butted-up joints.
(02) The ridge Plates where they joined together were just butted up with very little sealant in them allowing water to get to the interior of the conservatory
Solution: "V" out all of the joining ridge plates to accept a good quantity of over-paintable sealant and paint over when completely dry.
(03) Roof Cappings had to be replaced due to there being very large cracks in them, but when the caps were removed all of the sealants beneath was falling away as if the glazing had been done in the wet weather and at the ends of the rafters the cavity between the Rafters and the Glazing caps had been completely filled in with clear silicon, furthermore, the roof is supposed to be a semi-dry glazed system so no sealant is required at these points if constructed and installed properly, all the sealants were doing was causing a daming effect and creating problems, in 0ver 38 years I've never seen so much sealant on one roof.
Solution: Remove all glazing caps and manufacture new ready-for-fitting, Remove all existing sealants from each and every piece of glass and remove all sealants from every rafter cavity, clean everywhere up completely of which is a very lengthy job to do correctly then re-apply sealants into the correct places prior to fitting the new Glazing caps to each rafter, (All new glazing caps have to have the 3m double sided tape fitted to them prior to fitting, then fitted with 38mm and 50mm Stainless Steel Nails only).
From start to finish the works on this conservatory took approximately 3 months to repair including the time making new parts in the workshop and machining new parts including sanding the outside back to bare timber due to poor decorating and leaking side frame glass and the decoration of the Interior (note: this had the exterior and interior color changed as well)
I have over 500 photos of the works carried out on this conservatory showing the repairs and the problems found as we went it was unbelievable that a simple conservatory could have so many.
After Works
Before Works
If you'd like to see further images and information on this repair project then email me directly and ill quiet willingly share it with you...!
Cause of Problems:
- Poor Fitters and Fitting and Previous Repair Company
- Poor Decorators