For a while now, we've had a damp patch on one of our ceilings. Today, I finally got up into the attic, and found that some of the felt under the titles has come down. Not a huge bit, probably about 300mm square.
I really don't want to have to re-felt the whole roof (and we can't afford that at the moment anyway), so I'm looking for ideas on the best way to fix this from the inside. My "bumper book on DIY" doesn't really say much about roof felt!
Thanks, A.
Roof shouldn't really need felt to be dry, my parents house and several friends have dry non felted roofs, what is it tile/slate ?
Tile. Maybe it's possible that one of the tiles has also slipped then, although I can't see anything wrong from the outside. I'll have to take a bit more of a look. It does only tend to leak at certain times, presumably when the wind is blowing in the "wrong" direction.
Thanks, A.
Fix the roof, not the felt. The felt is the backup system. My roof doesn't even have any.
Christian.
As other have said the felt is only secondary but when it gets a hole all the tiny leaks above that point come through in that one place...
A good condition slate or tile roof won't let in much but it will particularly if there is a bit of wind behind the rain. Of course roof without sarking has very high ventilation levels so will dry PDQ as well...
As to fixing your hole. You need something water proof and moderately tough and stiff. Heavy gauge poly sheet, opened out old feed bags are quite good, provided they haven't any holes.
Idealy you need to tuck the poly under the batten below the hole and bring it through the hole and attach it to the rafters 18" or so above. Any water coming of the top bit of sarking onto the poly gets channeled well down onto the lower sarking.
Most roofs go at the ridge or near a cause of wind eddies. This is usually some obstruction and the tiles will be near the top course, so replacing them is generally easy to do. If the slate has slipped from the middle or lower down you need to get the nails it fell from out of the way and that can be a pig for inexperienced people to sort.
If you can get one of those cut anything saws you might try that, otherwise you need a slate rip. (A notched thin bar to fish for and haul out the offenders with.) Then you need to find a way to fix the new slate. Tiles are somewhat different as you can sometimes lift a lot of courses from a lower one in a "domino effect" style.
Get a roll of felt and some ruberoid compound from your local BM. Get some tiling batten or similar for props. Cut a piece of felt full roll width that will fit in between the rafters. Tidy up the hole edges. Apply a generous layer of jointing compound, and tuck the bottom edge of your strip of felt over the top edge of the undamaged run of felt below the damaged piece. Prop the whole lot up with battens until set. Done.
J.B.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.