I really hate roofing

[plasticpigeon]

Who would be a roofer?

 

[Keithj]

And there was me thinking that pigeons like roofs.

 

[88v8]

Not me.
Very hard on the legs.

And if one is working on a tiled roof, the constant worry of cracking the tiles.
The aluminium cat ladder I bought is quite useless. The supports are too localised and almost guaranteed to do damage. I shall have to make a wooden one like I did for our previous house, 2x1" sawn, springy, spreads the load.

Also, there's more to roofing than meets the eye... usual situation of not knowing what one doesn't know... the lovely old tiles I put up on my garage roof might well have survived another 100 years... on a steep north or west slope.
But on my shallow (30 degree) east slope they easily saturate, then comes the frost then the morning sun before they have thawed, and bingo! off come the flakes and more than flakes.

A few years and I shall have to rebuild that slope.
Oh well, it does look beautiful.

Ivor

 

[plasticpigeon]

Yes Ivor, I've realised that neither I nor most tradespeople round where I live have all the skills needed to do things well. I can work out how big the non standard or unusual sized slates that I want need to be where they should be nailed and where to put battens, but I don't know how big to make holes in the slates, which nails to use, how long tile laths can be between rafters (the roof was originally metal clad) or a myriad of other practical concerns. The roofers i spoke to wanted to use standard large sized slates with no patterns and live with whatever gauge they gave even if it left the look haphazard and uneven. I'm doing a bay roof off a ladder, yes it is hard on the legs. looks nice now but at what effort. I too wonder how long it will last as i fear i might have drilled holes in the slates that are too big and can't work out how to stop the wind getting under the top head nailed row of slates, (the rest are centre nailed) surely the lead isn't the only thing keeping the slates from flapping about!!

 

[TheRoost]

I found this guide a while back when I was looking for a roofer, found it quite interesting with the dimensions, specs, lead codes etc. it will encourage me to attempt a small job myself in the future, bay roof or garage etc. and help interrogate roofers quoting on major roof work hopefully.
Hope it's of some help.

http://www.ssqgroup.com/resource-centre/slate-design-and-fixing-guide/


Andy

 

[MatthewC]

...how long tile laths can be between rafters ...

I can answer that one. On my new (2011) extension the rafters are normal 400mm centres. Because of the rooflight I added, one gap is over 650mm, but I didn't bother to fit an extra bit of rafter where one would have been but for this window. However, when I came to nail the slates, the batten vibrated and made nailing very difficult - if I was to do it again, I would add the extra bit of rafter!

NB I would not like to do slate roofing as a profession, but the small amount I have done - extension and shed - was very satisfying.

 

[Flyfisher]

Yes, I dislike roof work - but I dislike a leaking roof even more.