Overhang of tiles on gable end - verge

[David WE Roberts]

Helping my daughter spruce up her house before she rents it out. One issue is some water ingress on the gable end. Builder pointed out that there was virtually no overhang of the tiles on the gable end.

From

"Verge tiles should overhang the building fabric by between 38 and 50mm. Less than 38mm and watermarks will show down the face of the wall. Greater than 50mm and end tiles in each row will become unstable due to the overhang and buffeting on the underside and the suction on the upper side as wind blows over it."

Looking at other houses on the street, it looks as though originally they weren't rendered and the rendering has brought the wall nearly out to the edge of the tiles. Although even those not rendered don't have a great overhang.

So is this something that is feasible to fix? Slightly wider slates/tiles to give a bit of overhang? To really keep water off the end wall it might take a piece of wood supporting an overhanging row of tiles. Most houses have quite an overhang - presumably for a reason.

Cheers

Dave R

[Harry Bloomfield]

David WE Roberts used his keyboard to write :

Not an expert, but I've seen roofs where the edging has been finished off with angled tiles which wrap around the edges like a capping. Might that be a potential solution?

[Kipper at sea]

Depends which type of tile is on the roof. If they are plain tiles "Rosemary type" or slate, its quite easy to extend the tiles over the verge, but if they are interlocking concrete tiles could be difficult as to add on a 30mm-50mm piece you would have difficulty holding it in place.

[NT]

Lead is an obvious option. Is angling the top of the rendering so it sheds water workable? I'm guessing not.

NT

[David WE Roberts]

*Lead is an obvious option. Is angling the top of the rendering so it *sheds water workable? I'm guessing not.

The aim is to keep the water away from the render. I have found stuff when Googling for "plastic verge caps" after seeing a plastic cover for a verge. Haven't found what I think I saw, but there are various systems for getting dry verge ends.

Options I have found so far seem to be either fitting a verge end system under the last row of tiles so the plastic covers the top of the render, or fitting a fascia board and extending the tiles over the fascia board to get the edge away from the render.

One issue is that the gable end is part of a semi. and the apex is on the party wall, so fixing one half must not adversely affect the other side.

Now trying to find a roofer who knows about such things.

However lead under the last row of slates would seem to do much the same as the plastic verge under the last row of tiles. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Kipper at sea]

However lead under the last row of slates would seem to do much the same

Is the roof covered with "SLATES or TILES" Which ever they are you have to take off to fix the dry verge or lead to Marley Hawkins do make plain tile verge tiles but they are expensive

[David WE Roberts]

*Is the roof covered with "SLATES or TILES" Which ever they are you *have to take off to fix the dry verge or lead to Marley Hawkins do *make plain tile verge tiles but they are expensive

I am being deliberately non-specific because the main roof (parallel to the road) looks to be covered with concrete tiles but the rear part of the house (at right angles to the road) looks to have slates from the little I can see - from withing the curtilage you can't see the roof apart from the gable end.

[stuart noble]

Our gable end wall faces south west, so the rain blows against it rather than coming off the slates. IME if the render is at all porous, there will be damp, regardless of the tile overhang.

[David WE Roberts]

We expect to find that there is more than one cause. Just trying to fix the obvious ones first. The visible damp suggests top and corner of the rear wall. Also looking at the guttering to make sure it goes out far enough beyond the gable end.

[Dave Liquorice]

We have gables facing all directions as far as wind blown rain is concerned. There are no over hangs, the wind would simply use it as lever to get under the slates and have them off(*). The edge of the slates is simply pointed to the top of the wall or render. We don't get damp inside but then to get inside it would have to traverse 12 to 18" of stone wall.

Agreed. Trouble with damp inside is working out where it is getting in. It can travel quite along way down and across by capillary action. A clue as to how far it has come is how quickly it appears and disappears after rain. If it come and goes quickly then the chances are it's not travelling very far but if it's very slow hours to days and doesn't really dry then the whole wall is wet and working out where it's getting in can be tricky. Flashings around chimneys or even down flues and through the stack itself are common sources.

(*) Was a bit windy late yesterday afternoon. Real Gale Force 8,

[stuart noble]

The house opposite, of a similar age to ours, has a big tile overhang with soffit and fascia board. Looks good but, when you see the rain hitting the wall horizontally, you realise it has no practical value.

[charles]

It also makes it impossible to clean the gutters from a ladder leaning on the walll ;-(

[stuart noble]

This is only on the gable, so no gutters. Front and back have the short tile overhang with standard guttering