Worcestershire Living September 2009

RECLAIM YOUR ROOF

LIZA HANKS FROM WINCHCOMBE RECLAMATION GIVES HOMEOWNERS SOME ADVICE ON CHECKING THE ROOF OF THEIR PROPERTY TO ENSURE IT'S IN TIP TOP CONDITION BEFORE THE ONSET OF WINTER.

We have suffered from strong winds and lots of rain again this spring and summer and many roofs will have suffered to a greater or lesser extent and this is the perfect time to check them and sort out any repairs before the autumn storms and winter weather really do compound any problems. 

What we are looking for ranges from the minor problems that will take a morning to sort out, to 'cancel the holidays' major repairs. A ten minute check around your home will give you a good indication of what to prepare for. Start at one elevation at a time, if it helps do a sketch, at the top looking for broken or missing tiles along the main roof face. Now look at where the joins occur, either where two roofs meet to a hip or a valley; hips will be tiled, valleys may be tiled or flashed. Around dormer windows or chimney stacks are typically flashed using lead or lead substitute to prevent water seeping through. You are looking for lifted, damaged or missing parts, or worse, signs of water (a dark stain, a white powder on bricks or algea growing) along or under the joins. Then look around the edges, you should see on a tiled roof two layers of tiles at the eves (where the tiles meet gutters0 the under layer is called undereve tiles and these help prevent driving rain creeping under and up the tiles. Gable edges should be cemented in place again to prevent wind in particular lifting the tiles but also to prevent rain from being driven under the tiles. Any missing or broken tiles or mortar will cause bigger problems to the timbers under the tiles over time.

Now stand back and look at the roof as a whole. Any sagging or dipping in the roof may be an indicator of bigger problems to the timbers below but many older properties will have lived with a sagging roof for years and still be perfectly stable but get an expert structural engineer to confirm this is writing just to be sure.  If you have a natural slate or stone roof you need to take an extra look at the tiles. Slates are layers of compressed sediment and extreme temperatures will expand and contract any moisture between these layers allowing larger moisture pockets and more thermal movements. This will losen layers, this is called shaling. This will cause the failure in the roof to shed water over time and it will leak. This can be identified by looking for bits of slate falling away but the slates are not broken. It is especially important when looking to replace slates that the replacements are sound. This is easily tested by tapping the slate with a coin, it should ring, a shaled slate will make a dull tap sound. Many yards will sell shaled slates but these are only suitable for mulching garden pots.

If you find any problems call a roofer sooner rather than later as they are as busy as Santa's elves the closer we get to Christmas.           

Winchcombe Reclamation, Broadway Road, Winchcombe, telephone 01242 609564 or visit the website at www.winchcombereclamation.co.uk