What to do - Pergola not built to code standards

Hi all,

Long time lurker, first time poster. I have an issue with the pergola at my investment property. The previous owners had built the pergola with not enough drainage pipes and bad roof design, which has led to some ceiling water damage internally (the pergola roof is connected to the house roof) as well as externally on the pergola. Now the property manager is asking me to engage a builder/pergola builder to assess the issue at hand. I am in the middle of receiving quotes to see how much the repairs will be. My question is, what is the best way to progress? I'm thinking my options are:
- Get the builder to assess and rebuild the pergola
- Depending on the cost of rebuild, possibly just knock the pergola down (although it's a really nice pergola and I wouldn't want to do this). I believe the previous owners spent 10k on building this, so I really wouldn't want to knock it down.
- Get the builder to assess and not do anything about this, and clean the roof gutters in hopes that this can help prevent the water damage from getting worse (the ceiling hasn't started to drip, but there is a noticeable water mark that is getting worse over time)

What do you all think? Any comments are appreciated, thanks!

 

Just get a quote to fix. Might just need a roofing plumber to add another down pipe.

When you say ‘not to code‘ do you mean it doesn’t have a permit?

 

I have same issue with my home in sydney
pergola was added later on and just feeds in existing gutters of the main house
I always thought that its the gutter which overflow during heavy rain but I went up roof the other day and did some water tests and found that water was actually leaking from the joins on the corrugated roof of pergola which can be sealed with silicon etc

it is better to 1st get a roof plumber to have look,there might be way to change the roof pitch, add flashing to direct water away from house, or add new down pipes to take down the extra water load
re-building the pergola will be last option

 

In this case, I would be checking that the correct overlap was used on the sheets and that the correct screws (e.g. laser lite screws) were used - in the correct position - before adding silicone. Also checking the fall.

 

Yes, I had a plumber out who said that one of the sheets has been installed the wrong way around
roof is all corrugated metal but there is one panel of fiberglass which is the problem one

 

Photos?

Not suggesting this is the case with your situation but those high fronted gutters than overflow into the house are very annoying.

 

Thanks for all your responses so far.

I just had 2 builders inspect the pergola today. Both said similar things:
- Like @sam999 , the pergola feeds into the existing gutter for the house. As the gutter and drain pipe is quite narrow, the water is flowing too slowly from the roof through the gutter on those heavy raining days Melbourne gets a few times/year. Both builders suggested a box gutter to be installed, but this would mean $$$ as some of the pergola roof would need to be removed and a box gutter inserted in
- One of the builders also suggested an another option of inserting 2 extra drain pipes on the sides of the pergola, and replace the existing metal drain pipe with a PVC drain pipe a bit larger in diameter. This should hopefully enhance the flow of water during the heavy pour days, and also will be a lot cheaper than tearing some of the pergola roof down
- The builder believes the watermark inside the house may be caused by a cracked tile. Hopefully this is correct but more investigation is needed to review this

@Joynz I believe a permit was obtained, but in the building inspection report, it was noted that there was a lack of drainpipes, which didn't meet some sort of code.

All in all, it's not as dire as I thought, and I'll probably go with the addition of the extra drains (cost is pending). Thanks again for all of your input. It's great to hear of other people experiences.

 

Side question...would it be illegal/inadequate to channel the down pipe off a pergola into a rainwater tank?

 

All depends on how much water into how big of a tank. I don't believe it's illegal.