Covering up horsehair lining

[fletchj]

Hi

The roof of my house is traditional tile and has some fairly elderly horsehair lining under the tiles, this is easily visible and accessible from inside the loft.

The roof itself is fine but the horsehair lining is getting pretty flakey and falls off in chunks and spreads dust all over the contents of the loft.

What I would like to do is to cover this up simply to reduce the dust level.

My current thinking is to fit strips of breathable membrane over the horsehair between the rafters - stapling this to the battens.

My thinking is that this shouldn't cause condensation because there will not be a seal.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

Is this sensible or is this going to cause condensation on the top of the membrane strips which will then run down to the floor.

Alternatively - is this a stupid idea entirely and I should be doing it entirely differently?

For a number of reasons I am not up for doing a complete reroofing in the immediate future.

 

[Nige F]

Sounds like an OK idea to me --Dunno about the horsehair tho` . Have seen brown stuff like carpet underlay occasionaly. Anywhere near Piltdown

 

[cmother1]

This horsehair....

Do you mean little fillets of white mortar with horsehair mixed in which are applied to the horizontal joints of the tiles inside the roof?? They used to call it 'torching' or 'tiering' and it was to stop powdery snow blowing in.

Your felt idea sounds as if it will work, but you could end up with an interesting pile of debris in the eaves as it slides down the felt.

If your roof is torched it must be one hell of an age. Might be worth thinking about getting it re-done properly now to avoid storing up problems for the future

 

[fletchj]

It may not be actual horsehair - it is a dark brown/black thick felt like material - I think it dates from the early 1900's - it has been put on in the same way as modern roof lining i.e. nailed on to the rafters under the battens.

 

[cmother1]

Hmm... Never seen that one! I hope it isn't something vile like decayed asbestos sheeting (it was safe in the olden days). Anyone else come across something like this?

If you can't afford a more permanent solution now good luck with the felt

 

[Nige F]

. Anyone else come across something like this?

I`ve come across it ..see my post . And I seem to remember it might have been in the Uckfield/Piltdown area...Who knows, I`ve worked all over Sussex

 

[fletchj]

Sounds like an OK idea to me --Dunno about the horsehair tho` . Have seen brown stuff like carpet underlay occasionaly. Anywhere near Piltdown

Thats the stuff - the house is in Sussex and has local tiles that are hooked over the battens with nails so sounds like a Sussex thing.

May go with the felt or may attach hardboard pegboard over the rafters which will stop the bits falling off and the dust but maintain ventilation and allow me to see it there is a leak.

 

[Nige F]

Nails hooking the tiles on... They are peg tiles.. and would have originally had wooden pegs in those holes and no felt . Later on the roof was refurbished , those nails were used and the roofing felt of the time - probably a new thing then , like breathable is today. Those peg tiles are valuable ..just google them in architectural salvage Pegboard sounds like a good idea...one that I wish I`d thought of