metal bay roof

[plasticpigeon]

Hello. A few houses on my road have the original zinc (I think) roofs, but I have attached a picture of the only house in my street that has the original bay roof with cast ironwork above. I was wondering what the mopstick hip rolls are for, does anyone know? Looking carefully at the roofs it looks like the tubes are just soldered on and are not actually a join between two sheets as it would be with for example, a lead roof. I am thinking of replacing my very ropey metal roof with a slate one but with lead hip rolls and a lead top on the flat section. Does this sound like a good idea or should I reinstate the Zinc as in the photo??? I might be asking Doug for some help with this!!!!

 

[worms]

Are you sure that the metal is original? It all looks in remarkable shape for its age and I wonder if the pipe sections have been soldered on to give the impression of the original join on the original lead?

 

[Flyfisher]

I would guess that the tubes are to provide structural stiffness. A zinc sheet of that size would be quite bendy and perhaps act a bit like a Rolf Harris 'wobble board' in strong winds.

 

[plasticpigeon]

I had a good nose at some of my neighbours roofs. I think I was a little wrong about the rolls not being over joints. I think there are folded upstand joints under the rolls, and then the roll must have a split in and is placed over the top. I have found this out as on one roof, the central roll has fallen down There is a short section of roof between the bottom of the roll and the gutter that is a lap joint between the two pieces. I would imagine that this is not soldered in order to allow for expansion. Perhaps this is not such a daft design!!! I'm sure this is original construction, as it is exactly as in this very old picture from shortly after the road was built! I still can't decide whether slate or reinstatement of the metal would be better. Either has got to be better than the felt on many peoples bays on my road though.