Should roof breathable membrane go into gutter?

[Rob1234]

Hi, I wonder if you can help as do not have knowledge about this subject and posting on behalf of my sister.

She has a small 2 bedroomed house that has a small dark grey slate roof that runs along the whole width of the front of the house at 1st floor level just above the front door and lounge.

The roofers have installed new dark grey slates (ie a new roof) and what I believe is a breathable membrane under the tiles which comes out and falls into the gutter. The problem is that the membrane shows and is bright green... so it looks awful. (IE two or three inches between the bottom of the roof and the gutter. They are saying this is normal which I cannot believe and have never seen this anywhere else.

1 Should the membrane go into the gutter and therefore show?
2 if so should they have used a different colour (ie dark grey)
3 is it possible to cut the membrane back so that it is not exposed?

many thanks, Rob

 

[joe-90]

It should have something like this.


http://www.anglianroofingsupplies.c...cts/eaves-underlay-felt-support-tray-15m.html

 

[Blagard]

1 Should the membrane go into the gutter and therefore show?
2 if so should they have used a different colour (ie dark grey)
3 is it possible to cut the membrane back so that it is not exposed?

Rob,

1. This is good practice
2. The felt is not usually easily seen so colour not normally an issue.
3. Triming excess back is OK, but the edge still needs to go into the gutter.

It does seem as they may have fitted the gutter excessively low, can you do a photo and upload ?

joe-90's strip is optional and messy to retrofit as you need to remove slates to get the fixings in. Slates at eaves are fitted first when the slates go on, so you can imagine it is a pain to get back there.

click for typical guide to gutter installation

 

[Rob1234]

Hi Joe_90 and Blagard,

Really appreciate your replies. I think the issue is has been resolved - the gutter was too low (thanks Blagard) - now fitted higher and membrane cannot be seen. best wishes, Rob

 

[joe-90]

Yeah but it wasn't done right in the first instance.

 

[^woody^]

You should not get any exposed felt or membrane as it will rot because it is not UV stable and will be affected by constant damp by being in the gutter

Plastic eaves trays should be fitted and then the membrane cut back to be below the tiles

So even now if you can't see it, you need to be sure that it is done properly or once the membrane rots, if there are no eaves trays then rainwater wont discharge into the gutter, but will run down the fascia instead

 

[Blagard]

So even now if you can't see it, you need to be sure that it is done properly or once the membrane rots, if there are no eaves trays then rainwater wont discharge into the gutter, but will run down the fascia instead

What a silly statement.

If rainwater gets onto the felt underlay, fix the roof covering. By all means fit eaves trays when you use underfelt that is not UV stable (Some are) but god help you if you rely on any of them to get rainwater into the gutter. I'm all for progress, but not at the expense of bad workmanship.

 

[^woody^]

What a silly statement.

Don't blame me ... take it up with the manufacturers or bodies such as the BRE who actually specify how it should be done

I think you do need to progress by the sound of things ... exposed sarking is so 1950's