I’ve been getting some good advice from people on here about this roof already, which helped sorting fascia’s, so thanks!
I’m now at the point where I’m fitting a dry verge and as I noticed the ridge tiles were all loose, I decided to fi a dry ridge kit as well. After mammoth amount of mortar was broken away from the ridge, I found a bit of a mess! I found the reason why the batten height was all over the place at the gable end was actually because the inner wall finishes ABOVE the rafter line in about 1/2 the length of the elevation! In other areas, there is a drop of upto 30mm between gable wall outer wall and the batten, causing the (too short) felt to sag inside the cavity in some places. At the abutment wall, the felt isn’t secured and has all sagged down into the void between last rafter and wall. To make matters worse, the ridge beam doesn’t run square it’s the walls, and the battens were installed by Stevie Wonder….as the felt is pretty much knackered anyway I’ve decided the best route will be to replace the felt with new breather membrane and rebatten as squarely as possible.
As this roof is only 15 degree elevation on rafter, it’s below the 22.5 min for the Marley Ludlow major tiles, so my plan to compensate a little for this is to increase overlap to 100mm and add an extra row of tiles in each side. At the same time I’m going to secure the ridge beam to the inner wall top so it doesn’t move around - currently the blocks used are loose and badly mortared, so it’s got a lot of movement, I’m hoping I can level it out at the same time as it currently run down toward the wall abutment!
My questions are, firstly, how should I fill the gap between the low sections of gable end wall and the felt and batten? Is it ok to leave it loose below the batten as long as I fold it up and staple to batten end? Or do I need to fill the gap under the felt-wall space with brick/mortar/expanding foam?
Secondly, should I just ensure a good upturn on the membrane and flash and or tape it to wall under the lead flashing? Or do I need to get an abutment soaker to support it.
Thirdly, will increasing headlap to 100mm help with the lack of elevation on the tiles? I’m taping the overlaps on the membrane anyway, but not sure if I need more?
Finally, when I replaced fascias, I fitted manthorpe 3 in 1 breather support trays with bird protection. These are higher than the rafter ends to ensure the eaves row of tiles is now at the same angle instead of 20 degrees more like before! They are screwed into the top of the fascia (18mm full fascia) and then nailed to rafters. I discovered the tangs that should bend outwards are a bitch to get to sit without pushing the tiles up for some reason, but folding back causes the whole vent and tray to lean back, creating a valley behind the vents. I found that the trays could be folded to accommodate the roof angle more, but even doing this, they have a decent gap underneath between rafter and underside.. is this normal?
One last question (sorry!). The rafters are toe nailed to the ridge beam, and onto roof plate with no birds mouth on roof plate. Would it be wise to add some ridge brackets to the rafters to support the fixing? Some look like they only have 1 nail in and none of them are flush with the ridge beam….
Some photos attached for reference - the edge of the ridge actually rises by about 25mm on the last two ridge tiles it’s that off….Thank you for all advice!
I’m now at the point where I’m fitting a dry verge and as I noticed the ridge tiles were all loose, I decided to fi a dry ridge kit as well. After mammoth amount of mortar was broken away from the ridge, I found a bit of a mess! I found the reason why the batten height was all over the place at the gable end was actually because the inner wall finishes ABOVE the rafter line in about 1/2 the length of the elevation! In other areas, there is a drop of upto 30mm between gable wall outer wall and the batten, causing the (too short) felt to sag inside the cavity in some places. At the abutment wall, the felt isn’t secured and has all sagged down into the void between last rafter and wall. To make matters worse, the ridge beam doesn’t run square it’s the walls, and the battens were installed by Stevie Wonder….as the felt is pretty much knackered anyway I’ve decided the best route will be to replace the felt with new breather membrane and rebatten as squarely as possible.
As this roof is only 15 degree elevation on rafter, it’s below the 22.5 min for the Marley Ludlow major tiles, so my plan to compensate a little for this is to increase overlap to 100mm and add an extra row of tiles in each side. At the same time I’m going to secure the ridge beam to the inner wall top so it doesn’t move around - currently the blocks used are loose and badly mortared, so it’s got a lot of movement, I’m hoping I can level it out at the same time as it currently run down toward the wall abutment!
My questions are, firstly, how should I fill the gap between the low sections of gable end wall and the felt and batten? Is it ok to leave it loose below the batten as long as I fold it up and staple to batten end? Or do I need to fill the gap under the felt-wall space with brick/mortar/expanding foam?
Secondly, should I just ensure a good upturn on the membrane and flash and or tape it to wall under the lead flashing? Or do I need to get an abutment soaker to support it.
Thirdly, will increasing headlap to 100mm help with the lack of elevation on the tiles? I’m taping the overlaps on the membrane anyway, but not sure if I need more?
Finally, when I replaced fascias, I fitted manthorpe 3 in 1 breather support trays with bird protection. These are higher than the rafter ends to ensure the eaves row of tiles is now at the same angle instead of 20 degrees more like before! They are screwed into the top of the fascia (18mm full fascia) and then nailed to rafters. I discovered the tangs that should bend outwards are a bitch to get to sit without pushing the tiles up for some reason, but folding back causes the whole vent and tray to lean back, creating a valley behind the vents. I found that the trays could be folded to accommodate the roof angle more, but even doing this, they have a decent gap underneath between rafter and underside.. is this normal?
One last question (sorry!). The rafters are toe nailed to the ridge beam, and onto roof plate with no birds mouth on roof plate. Would it be wise to add some ridge brackets to the rafters to support the fixing? Some look like they only have 1 nail in and none of them are flush with the ridge beam….
Some photos attached for reference - the edge of the ridge actually rises by about 25mm on the last two ridge tiles it’s that off….Thank you for all advice!
