Bats and roof tiles

[mike42]

Hi

We're trying to close obvious external holes around the building to reduce the chances of the bat surveyor "recommending" further surveys.

I took a picture of the roof above the garage (attached) and was wondering whether or not to bung up the gaps where the tiles don't mate very well. What I'm not sure about is whether these tiles, since they're obviously not flat, would allow something slightly thicker than a pencil (maybe 2cm diameter) to fly/crawl in anyway? (meaning I'd be wasting my time closing up the obvious tile faults in the picture).

 

[noseall]

I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve. A bat survey will mean a trip into the loft. If they find any evidence of bat ingress then they will ask you to install bat boxes and/or access tiles etc.

You will need to be very busy on that roof to be able to obscure all the potential bat ingress holes. Here's one we did earlier....

bat access1

• noseall
• 24 Dec 2015

bat acess2

• noseall
• 24 Dec 2015

 

[terrypin]

What a neat idea, thanks for that one.

Shame about the tile bond being about 5mm out in places

Just pulling yer leg.

 

[noseall]

Shame about the tile bond being about 5mm out in places

Yeah, couldn't help that. Because it's a hippy, we let the bonnets dictate the bond rather than say a tile'n' half, which results in a slightly less uniform bond.
We start at the hips and work into a cut in the middle.

 

[terrypin]

Shame about the tile bond being about 5mm out in places

Yeah, couldn't help that. Because it's a hippy, we let the bonnets dictate the bond rather than say a tile'n' half, which results in a slightly less uniform bond.
We start at the hips and work into a cut in the middle.

I was just avin a larf, but I do like the access tile idea.

 

[noseall]

I was just avin a larf, but I do like the access tile idea.

Ta duck, think I ought to patent it?

 

[terrypin]

I was just avin a larf, but I do like the access tile idea.

Ta duck, think I ought to patent it?

Nah, it looks good in its natural colour.

 

[tony1851]

Slightly off-topic here, but this goes to show how far the lunacy of wildlife conservation has gone; bats, great-crested newts and the rest seem to take precedence over housing for humans.
It also keeps otherwise unemployed people in jobs, because you have to pay bat experts £££ to produce reports to give to local authority bat experts (who are also paid £££ in wages).
And who wants batcrap all over the loft!?
Who cares about a few bats anyway?
It's a good job we didn't have all this nonsense in 1940 when they were building munitions factories.

 

[ladylola]

Bat crap does make cracking fertiliser , I know I've used it. I've also worked on buildings where bats were resident , well to be exact work is carried out while the bats aren't there. On most of the buildings only some of the droppings were removed in order for the bats to still find it homely. I've personally got no problems with protecting bats or other wildlife but a little tip that can stop bats returning is to light up the loft area. Bats don't like trying to sleep with the light on anymore than we do. Indeed anything that disturbs them will tend to make them roost elsewhere , except probably the belfry . They don't like those either , too draughty

 

[mike42]

Slightly off-topic here, but this goes to show how far the lunacy of wildlife conservation has gone; bats, great-crested newts and the rest seem to take precedence over housing for humans.
It also keeps otherwise unemployed people in jobs, because you have to pay bat experts £££ to produce reports to give to local authority bat experts (who are also paid £££ in wages).
And who wants batcrap all over the loft!?
Who cares about a few bats anyway?
It's a good job we didn't have all this nonsense in 1940 when they were building munitions factories.

Hmm not sure it is off topic - I guess its off the topic that was already off topic but anyway.... I agree and I'm spending some days this Xmas holiday getting on my scaffold tower to replace 3 or 4 sqm of hanging tiles because apparently bats love them. Bloody hard waiting for a couple of days without too much wind (and rain).

Back to the original question (and thanks noseall for your answer) - just to clarify. Is the answer that the obvious straight cracks affecting 3 or 4 tiles where the tiles aren't mating well in the picture are irrelevant because every single other tile of that type would allow a bat in anyway (due to their rounded shape) ? I was thinking it might at least give the "batman" less of a reason to conclude the property is poorly maintained which seem to be a common catchall for them to request more surveys (the latter costing around £1K plus vat).