No brake lathes...

[Ricparr]

Hi all,

This is my first post on the forum and I was looking for a little bit of advice about a roofing issue we have...

We have lots of damp on the bottom floor of our terraced victorian house, some of which may be caused by rising damp and some by penetrating damp (depending on who you ask).

An independent damp inspection last year reported that they thought our roof (which was once slate but has been concrete tiled for potentially decades) lacked 'brake lathes' which could be causing water ingress at the roofline which is in turn causing the damp on the ground floor.i can't see any evidence of this in the loft itself but then I can't see the roofline - the roofline is far from straight however.

We have since had a roofer round who installed some felt support trays and also mentioned that there were no brake lathes - but didn't think that this would cause water ingress. He said that the support trays would do some of the job of the brake lathes and that it wasn't the end of the world. he didn't really think that even the felt support trays were necessary.

I'm very confused by this conflicting information... Does anyone know much about brake lathes and the implications of not having them? Could the lack of them realistically cause the damp?

Any advice much appreciated![/b]

 

[JohnD]

What is a brake lathe?

is it like a counterbatten?

Are you in Scotland, or somewhere that uses sarking board?

 

[KenGMac]

As per JohnD.

I live and have worked in Scotland for too many years but do not recognise the wording "brake lath" as far as my memory is concerned, it is not a typical building term up here?

 

[Ricparr]

That's strange... And may be why I'm having trouble googling it! As I understand it's the final baton that the last tile on the roofline rests on to prop it up a bit. Apparently my tiles just sit on the wallplate.