Wet roof battens

Good evening,

Our 1950s roof, tiled with flat terracotta tiles, faces the prevaling wind here in not so sunny St Annes. I accidentally ripped the felt and found the batten directly over the rip was wet through and quite soft. Looking more closely, some of the roof trusses also show signs of water as they have a slight white 'tide mark' up to an inch from the felt.

I guess the wet batten is a symptom of rain windblown up the roof but should the rain get through to the trusses?

Q1. Is this generally a problem or should I wait till summer to see if it dries out?

Q2. Is the 'tidemark' likely to be fungal or disolved minerals?

thanks again

AndyM

Reply to
AndyM
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Sounds more like wet rot and the start of a serious and expensive problem

Reply to
Space_Cowby

Damp under the felt if not leakage through the felt, will be condensation. Depending on design details and weather the underside of the felt can be damp on and off throughout the year and leave traces such as you have seen. If it also has a chance to dry off at intervals i.e. is well enough ventilated, then it may not be a problem. Damp and soft battens above the felt could be just normal building deterioration. St Annes is exposed to some severe weather. (is this Lytham St annes?). Personally, having enough to do anyway, I'd ignore this until it manifests itself in a "definitely needs fixing now" way e.g. slipping tiles or obvious roof leaks.

cheers

Jacob

Reply to
jacob

As you say this is the exposed side of the roof and it hasn't been exactly dry recently I wouldn't woory about it to much. Wait until it hasn't rained for say a week and check if it's dried out. Probably won't be totaly dry but if it's substantially dryer that would indicate it will dry, eventually.

Got very similar marks in our roof, I suspect it's minerals rather than fungal. Provided the void is ventilated and the timbers are dry then it's probably not a problem either.

Reply to
Dave Liquorice

Thanks. Yes I am in Lytham St Annes. 1/2 mile from the sea and regularly lifting handfulls of sand off the car due to the strong winds. Thankfully no frosts though. I too have lots to do. Just fitted a boiler CH system (thanks to this NG) and a new kitchen will be in before end of Feb. The roof can wait.

AndyM

Reply to
AndyM

If you look in an old roof (i.e. without sarking) you would be amazed at just how much stuff can come through it (especially snow!). So the battens being a bit wet is not too surprising. They usually stay put well enough even if rotten right up until someone walks on them ;-)

A certain amount will get though by the nails through the felt. Again not much to worry about as long an you don't obstruct ventilation to the underside of the roof.

I would expect this to be unlikely to be an immediate problem.

Fungal would be recognisable by wispy fibres or fruiting bodies etc. So probably just a tide mark plus dissolved air bourn pollution.

Reply to
John Rumm

I'd go along with this. Battens will rot in time, and ecebntually - typically eery 60 years or so - its time to remove tiles, refelt and re-batten. And stick the tiles back.

You should ideally NOT be getting water blown up under the tiles though. Maybe they are loose or cracked.

Obviously, if water is getting under them. it will run don and collect on the battens, and leak through the holes the nails make in the felt. I'd say the staining is smply dissolved minerals evaporating.

Note that the felt is not menat to be a rain barier: It's a wind barier to prevent the wind getting under the tiles and lifting them.

I would do nothing, except start to save up for a roof re-tile and refelt and re batten in the next 5-10 years.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

That's the spirit!

Save up and then do everything up top that needs it - you will probably need scaffolding - so its a great time to sort out chimney repointing, Chimenty linres for whatever, TV aerial installion, tiling flashing and so on all in one go.

Use of a repuabel roofing firm that offer a guarantee is possibly worth it in terms of final re-sale value.

Reply to
The Natural Philosopher

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