A wasp nest had built up under the tiles of a Warrington house, below the felt. We opened a section of roof to reach it, took the nest out and made the felt, battens and tiles good again.
The wasps on this modern red-brick house in Warrington were not in the loft in the ordinary sense. The nest had been built up under the tiles, in the gap between the covering and the roof timbers, tight against the underlay and pressed into the insulation behind it. From inside the house there was activity but nothing to get at; from the garden, wasps going in and out at the eaves.
Reaching a nest in that position means going in from the outside, and going in carefully. Take up too much of the roof and you have created a second problem; take up too little and you cannot get the nest out whole. This is one of the odder jobs that lands on us under roof repair work, and it comes round every summer.
We opened a measured section of the slope above where the activity was. The tiles came off first and were passed down and stacked, then the underlay was cut back and the battens across that section lifted, which left the rafters and the top of the insulation open to work on. The surrounding courses were left undisturbed.
The photographs taken from inside that opening show what was there: grey papery comb, layer on layer of it, packed in between the rafters and spread across the mineral wool below. Nest material had broken away and scattered over the felt, which is usually the first sign that a nest has been in place for a while.
The nest was treated before anything was moved, then taken out along with the loose comb and the debris that had come away from it. Working in that order matters — disturb a live nest in a confined roof space first and the rest of the job becomes a great deal harder.
With the void clear, the felt and battens that had been cut and lifted were replaced with new, and the tiles were relaid over them to match the courses either side. One of the photographs catches that stage: new timber across the opening, the underlay dressed back in, tiles going up the ladder a stack at a time.
Wasps going in through a gap at the eaves, a vent or a lifted tile, rather than through an airbrick or a window; a steady buzz from the ceiling with nothing visible in the loft; nest material showing under the tiles; the odd wasp appearing in an upstairs room; heavy activity around the gutter line on a warm afternoon. Those point to the gap under the covering.
Whatever comes out of a roof, the roof still has to be put back properly afterwards, which is the part we handle. We do this alongside our other roof repairs in Warrington, and you can contact us for a free quote if something has made a home under your tiles.
Tell us what the roof is doing and roughly where you are. We will come and look, and you get a written price before anything starts.
