Replacing Sarking

[Cursitor Doom]

Hi all,

Is there some way of replacing sarking in a roof from the inside and without removing (or disturbing too much at any rate) the tiles? Or the battens??

cheers,

cd

[John Rumm]

Not realistically... To serve any real purpose it needs to be a continuous membrane under the tile battens.

[Tim Watts]

Wot John said - there is no way to do it that has any meaning.

[harryagain]

No.

[Brian Gaff]

My roof has none, indeed one can see daylight from inside. Brian

[Andrew Gabriel]

I have done it from the outside a few times, and it's not very difficult, but you do have to take the tiles off, and at least temporarily release the battens from the rafters (if you aren't also replacing the battens anyway).

I must get around to putting up the pictures of doing this.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

What a very strange question. ;-)

[John Rumm]

Well I suppose one could do it by leaving the tiles and battens in place, and pulling the rafters off the underside ;-)

[PeterC]

That'd work for someone who has long laces on his boots to save buying a loft-ladder.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

True. I've got some paint which is good but coming adrift. How can I just replace the primer - as that's what's failed? ;-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

They do in Scotland. Or anywhere where you'd get extremes of weather.

[Cursitor Doom]

I think we're on the same wavelength. That's exactly the kind of wheeze I had in mind. ;-)

[Jethro_uk]

The roofer who retiled and re-membraned my roof was adamant that it's the felt that makes it weatherproof, not the tiles ....

[Huge]

My first house had no felt.

And one winter we had about 1" of snow in it.

[Andrew Mawson]

I'm sure that there is quite a bit of truth in that. Although you'd expect a fully tiled and sound roof would be weatherproof, as soon as wind becomes involved rain or snow no longer only goes down hill and gets in unexpected places. We've just (hopefully) cured a leak over our bedroom - newly tiled, but in one place the roofer had got the overlap of the flashing and the sarking the wrong way round. Absolutely fine even in torrential rain unless there was a wind from a particular direction.

Andrew

[harryagain]

Felt is a relatively new thing only used in the last sixty years or so. We have previously had two thousand years without it.

It makes the roofspace more draught proof and provides a secondary barrier if there are loose/missing tiles. During construction, it enables the house to be made weatherproof at an earlier stage in construction.

It can cause dampness/rot issues if not properly installed too.

[Jethro_uk]

Our roofer fitted a breathable membrane ... lets moisture out, but not water in.

[Tim Watts]

They all should now. Damn tough it is too... But it will rot where the sun gets to it - so they often fit gutter trays or a layer of DPC along the edges.