fixing edge slates?

[hobbedy]

We've had our 1900 house re-roofed. The roofers stripped the old slates, put a membrane down and supplied reclaimed slates. They refixed the slates and did all the leadwork on the roof, and it looks very nice bar a few niggles etc.

However, I went up a ladder today to have a look and the edge slates (i.e where the tiles hang over the side of the roof towards next door) are strange...

Basically instead of fixing all the slates with nails to the roof battens (although most are) the very edge of the roof has been filled in/made up all the way along with slates cut to half size, which are glued using some pink mastic to the slates below. One of them came down in the wind today.... icon_cry.gif

These slates cover the top of the outside brick wall of the house and the edge (which is directly underneath the slates), but what would the normal method of fixing be, as you can't screw them to the wall!. I can't see that using pink glue is a legit way of doing things?

If anyone with experience can get back to me and let me know the score it'd be appreciated!

 

[hobbedy]

View media item 7030damaged verge tiles

View media item 7031gap under tiles - surely this gap needs filling with mortar? it's even wider at the bottom end!

View media item 7032 pink mastic showing under loads of slates

View media item 7033hole in flashing I just spotted! so water will just run down the roof into here, brilliant

 

[SurreyRoofingEstimator]

I have to say that those slates look VERY exposed with that oversail. A split slate should only be used where the slate is 300mm wide or more (under current codes of practice) though with that detail I'd reckon there should be extra wide slates used no matter what the size of the slates to maintain a positive fixing.

(this is assuming the photo isn't exagerrating the oversail there).

 

[hobbedy]

Hi!

yeah the slates are hanging quite a way off the edge, but perhaps the pics make it look worse than it is.

So what you're saying is that this roof isn't to current codes of practice, as the slates are split and definitely less than 300mm, I'd say about 120mm at a guess.

I've spoken to the roofer and the problem we have is that the roof has been done with reclaimed slates, so extra wide ones are not available in this style. Of course we weren't told about this but the quote does say all slates to be fixed down with nails, not with mastic.

The question is, do we accept the half slates being fixed with mastic or demand they insert new slates that don't match the rest of the roof in the larger size?

Also can anyone offer an opinion about whether the gap under the tiles should be filled with mortar? I'd have thought it was necessary to stop water ingress. They said it's not been done on the verges as it's a "tight fit to the render" but I think this is nonsense, it doesn't look very tight to me. I don't see why the render can't be cut back a bit and then mortar applied.