Help - Roofing Battens

[jpog]

Please help - I have ordered and now fitted 20x50mm treated wood and not used Graded Battens as I now realise I should have.

I thought the wood seemed very weak but thought it must be ok.

What shoud I do? Take them off? add some more proper battens?

Please help.

EDIT:
Sorry, I meant I had used 25x50mm treated not 20.

The timber I have used is very knotty, one piece fell in half when I lifted it.

The trusses are 600mm apart and heavy concrete tiles going on.

I am hoping I can lay a proper batten either underneath to add strength or on top then cut the eaves 25 mm shorter to compensate.

I wish I had noticed my mistake before I fitted them but atleast I am not in a hospital bed or worse having fallen through them.

Will the Redland Mini Stonewold tiles be ok with 100 x 25mm of total batten under them?

 

[cmother1]

That's a very weird size. Modern battens are 25x38mm or 25x50 depending on rafter spacing (up to 450mm and 600mm respectively).

The cross section area of your timber is slightly higher than that of the smaller batten size so you'll probably get away with it if your rafters are at 450mm centres or less. If the work is subject to building control, though, you might gave a job convincing the inspector ("show me your calculation for these battens"...etc)

You say the wood seems very weak. Is this because of knots or is it just crappy timber. Not that 'graded' battens are anything to write home about a lot of the time.

What sort of covering are you hoping to put on? Concrete, clay, fibre&cement? The lighter the better with these thinnish battens.

 

[joe-90]

You'll have damaged felt if you take them off. You'll get away with it.

 

[jpog]

edit

 

[cmother1]

Size is OK then. I think all you really need to do is check the soundness of any big or dead-wood knots. If needed gently lever up the affected piece, saw it out, and replace it.

Your battens don't sound like anything worse than normal to me (I'm amazed that only one piece fell in half!)

I think I'd avoid the 2 batten (100x25mm) option. This width could hold the backs of the tiles proud of the battens making it 'interesting' to move around the roof

 

[jpog]

Thanks for you advice cmother, I will check out the knots as suggested, I am going to try standing on a test piece supported 600mm a part.

I am not very confident moving about the roof and I am currently using short scaffold boards across the rafters.

 

[cmother1]

I think standing on a piece of batten is a bit OTT - this will point load it unlike the tiles, which will put a more or less uniform load on it. When laying out the roof I'd just take care to park your hands/knees/feet/backside over the intersection of batten and rafter. You can make life a bit more comfortable for yourself by knocking up a duckboard to hang over the battens and spread the load as you work off it.

Good luck & don't fall through the Velux hole if you're fitting one (easier done than you'd think)!

 

[datarebal]

Get rid of the big knots, dont stand in between the trusses/rafters and it'll be fine.

25x50 on 600 centres you'll be danceing up there by the time you finish... easy