My Relatively New Roof

[hobbedy]

View media item 7030damaged verge tiles

View media item 7031gap under tiles - surely this gap needs filling with mortar? it's even wider at the bottom end!

View media item 7032 pink mastic showing under loads of slates

View media item 7033hole in flashing I just spotted! so water will just run down the roof into here, brilliant

 

[cjard]

Erk! I'm under the impression that slates are to be run in rows alternating 1.0/1.5 widths because they are so long, relative to their width, that to put a 0.5 width in would make the slate very unstable in the wind lift that a gable end would be subject to.. While I'm not a roofer, I'd take a very dim view of someone doing to my slate roof what has been done to yours. Logic suggests (to me, someone with practical experience may have an alternate take) that your roof would need stripping in a triangle, removing the most slates from the top, such that the old 0.5 wide slates can be taken out and 1.5 wide slates fitted in their place. I'm sure someone here can give you an opinion on whether any repair operations can be carried out with most of the roof in-situ. It may be worth asking a moderator to split your post off into a separate thread

In the "gap in slates" pic, if the gap youre referring to is the top slate angling away from the next one down, so that the wind can get under it, I think that gap has only appeared because the second slate hasnt got one underneath it to lift it up.

http://www.roofconsult.co.uk/articles/tiling/tips49.htm is an interesting read, as is http://www.roofconsult.co.uk/articles/tiling/tips24.htm which seems to largely refer to your specific problem. Many other articles exist alongside at http://www.roofconsult.co.uk/articles/tiling/
Are you still on good terms with the co who did your roofing? (And how do you feel about falling out with them? )

 

[hobbedy]

The re-roof has only just about finished, we're yet to make the final payment for the work...

I'd agree that stripping the tiles back from the edges and making up with 1.5 widths would surely be a better solution, if this is doable.

What's extremely annoying is our previous roof lasted 100 years yet we've had more issues with the re-roof in the month it's been up! We're extremely annoyed to put it mildly.

Thanks for those links, they are very interesting indeed! The one about mastic and slates confirms my fears about the slates shearing away from the mastic.

If a moderator would delete my other thread and make these posts into a new thread, that'd be great!

 

[cjard]

I'd agree that stripping the tiles back from the edges and making up with 1.5 widths would surely be a better solution, if this is doable.

Given that some of the 1.0 width slates in your pic seem to have snapped, there may also be a support issue at this particular location in the roof? If only tiles/slates could be stripped in a line; I'm currently facing an issue where a considerable section of my roof and possibly the neighbour's will have to be stripped because of a fault the entire length of a verge

The re-roof has only just about finished, we're yet to make the final payment for the work...

What's extremely annoying is our previous roof lasted 100 years yet we've had more issues with the re-roof in the month it's been up! We're extremely annoyed to put it mildly.

You're not the only one to be in this exact position

Thanks for those links, they are very interesting indeed! The one about mastic and slates confirms my fears about the slates shearing away from the mastic.

I edited my post to add another relevant link I'd missed before; tips24

 

[chappers]

using half slates is not necessarily a problem in it's self, but in your situation, where the slates are resting directly on the gable end with no battens or undercloak. Then fixing is a problem and tiles and tile and ahalfs would have been a better solution.
I'm sure we would all admit to using the odd bit of gripfil when we have broken a slate in the middle of a finished roof but to use it as your primary prefered method of fixing is asking for trouble, particularly at the verges.
I would get them back to sort it, before parting with any money

 

[hobbedy]

Hi Chappers, a few parts of the roof have been fixed with pink mastic, which I assume is just where things got broken in fitting.

I've spoken to the roofer and the problem we have is that the roof has been done with reclaimed slates, so extra wide ones are not available in this style. Of course we weren't told about this but the quote does say all slates to be fixed down with nails, not with mastic.

The question is, do we accept the half slates being fixed with mastic or demand they insert new slates that don't match the rest of the roof in the larger size?

Also can anyone offer an opinion about whether the gap under the tiles should be filled with mortar? I'd have thought it was necessary to stop water ingress. They said it's not been done on the verges as it's a "tight fit to the render" but I think this is nonsense, it doesn't look very tight to me. I don't see why the render can't be cut back a bit and then mortar applied.