Friends, the loft at my (new) home (ex Council semi) has only got tarred paper, not felt, under the tiles.
The roof has not been worked on, according to the neighbours, for about 30 years and the paper has become brittle and crumbles when touched.
Short of stripping the roof and having new felt fitted under the tiles (Expensive), is there any DIY method I could use to stop the draughts and keep out water ingress?
Your thoughts would be appreciated, Peter.
The tiles/slates should be keeping out water. Any lining is just a secondary backstop in the event a tile/slate breaks, and also helps avoid water/snow penetration in high winds, but that's generally rare enough that homes used to just put up with it before roofs were routinely lined. Why do you care about draughts up there?
The cost of replacing lining when that's all that is wrong is prohibitive, as it requires stripping the roof down to the rafters (it goes under the battens, not just under the tiles). You don't do it just for the sake of it.
The draughts are supposed to be there to ventilate the roof, and the
*tiles* are supposed to stop water getting in.If water is coming in, you have a tile problem.
In short, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
There are thousands of roofs with no underlay. At worst the only things are drifting snow, dust and if the tiles are concrete condensation drip in cold weather.
If you plan on using the loft for work etc and need less draught then why not Rockwool between the rafters and batten over it to retain it. This would maintain heat, reduce draught (Although not entirely eliminate it ) reduce water ingress and reduce noise. If there is a substantial draught causing a chill down through the ceiling of the room underneath then proper loft insulation will help in between the rafters of that ceiling.
In article , RW writes
The now disintegrating paper provides essential secondary protection against water ingress (the primary being the tiles). If the O/P fits rockwool without restoring the secondary protection he is providing a sponge to store any water that may leak past the tiles which will lead to rot and the failure of the roof structure. Do not do this.
ive got no roofing paper nor felt, just slate, when a slate slips i get a wet patch on the cieling and can go and investigate above it,
if i was to , say, put plastic under the slates (or insulation) then thered be less of a gale up there, and any water coming in would be channeled to the edge of the house, hopefully beyond the walls, but i wouldnt know about the slipped slate...
so perhaps i'll take the advice of a few postings ago to leave it as it is, and put insulation on the attic floor (which would get wet if a slate slipped, but a wet patch coming through the plaster will show me where, wont it?
Precisely.
Roofs were watertight without paper for centuries,before some smart alec discovered that putting tarred paper on helped stop the slates blowing off.
Its can't be "essential" secondary protection - since there are millions of houses without any form of sarking that still seem to keep the rain out.
I bet you wouldn't put rockwool in under slates or tiles without it :-?
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