PITCHED ROOFS

Roof Expert Manchester — experts at slate and tile roof repair and replacement

Fixing new artificial slates to a roof in Ashton-under-Lyne. Dispose of existing old slates, battens and roof sarking, then install new vapour permeable sarking membrane and new treated timber battens.

Keeping costs down by only fixing the parts of the roof that need fixing. Replacement of lead valley, carefully lifting tiles at side to gain access. Then re-fixing the tiles replacing any that are damaged.

Slates

Most older houses in England and Wales will have roofs covered with Welsh slate. Though extremely long-lasting, the quarrying of Welsh slate relied upon cheap labour. In modern times most slate roofs are constructed from either Spanish slate or man-made artificial slates.

For roof repairs or smaller re-roof jobs reclaimed slates are often used. These are slates that have been carefully removed from properties which were either being demolished or re-roofed in some other material.

Because slates are thinner than tiles they weigh less. When replacing a slate roof with tiles it is necessary to check that the roof timbers are capable of supporting the extra load. If a roof has been leaking for some time the rafters may have been weakened. The first sign of this is a dip in the roof line. A decision will need to be made whether to replace some, or all of the rafters, or else to add timber braces to the rafters.

Tiles

Roof tiles were original made from fired clay and date back to Roman times. In fact the 'wavey' profiled tiles made to today are often referred to as 'Roman' or 'Double Roman' profile.

Most manufactured tiles today are made from a type of compressed concrete and are available in a range of colours and either flat or profiled shapes.

Concrete tiles are likely to have a shorter service life than traditional slate. While slates can easily remain functional for several hundred years the design life of concrete tiles is more likely to be 80 to 100 years according to local weather conditions.

The principal manufacturers are Marley and Redland. A tile with a tapered lower edge is available which is designed to look like more like slate.