Roof tile fallen into gutter

esuhl

My guttering has been leaking badly at one corner. I just had them cleaned, and the bloke said that the guttering was fine, but that one of the lowest roof tiles had slipped into the gutter and that I'd need to arrange for a roofing expert to have a look at fixing it.

I know nothing about roofs and tiles, but I was wondering how hard it might be to fix myself?

Is it an easy job to replace a bottom tile? Can I just lift the overlapping tile above up a bit and slide it into place? What holds the tile where it should be?

And is it normal for a tile to become loose and fall off? Can I assume that the tile is broken, or unclipped, or...?

Yep -- I know nothing! Any advice or tips would be really appreciated!

Furts

A typical roof should have the bottom tile course fixed in place. Think of a nail here. You could push your tile back up, and it may stay there for ever more. You could nail it, if it has a nail hole.

The easy suggestion, would be to Gripfill the tile in place. A quick, cheap, DIY job. You just need a skeleton gun and a tube of Gripfill.

You might find other loose tiles. Do not be surprised if your gutter cleaner has loosened, or broken, some whilst gutter cleaning.

I will probably get shot down for saying this, but countless people have gutter cleaning done when there is absolutely no need to do so. All these people are doing is burning money, whilst allowing the cleaners to risk damaging their roofs.

fezster

Just push the tile back up into place. There's a batten onto which it will latch, but you'll probably find it's a tight squeeze in between the 2 adjacent tiles, so it will probably hold into place quite firmly. Be careful not to break the adjacent tiles doing this.

This picture should demonstrate:

http://inspectapedia.com/BestPractices/Figure2-21.jpg

Furts

fezster wrote: »

Just push the tile back up into place. There's a batten onto which it will latch, but you'll probably find it's a tight squeeze in between the 2 adjacent tiles, so it will probably hold into place quite firmly. Be careful not to break the adjacent tiles doing this.

This picture should demonstrate:

http://inspectapedia.com/BestPractices/Figure2-21.jpg

I go with this, but this will not be correct if OP has a smooth tile - a slate, or anything looking like an artificial slate. These will not have nibs to hook over the tile batten.

teneighty

A photo of the roof would probably help?

My contribution is......be careful up the ladder. I know a couple of people who came to an untimely end doing similar "easy" roofing jobs.

esuhl

Brilliant -- thanks all!

I have concrete tiles (I think), so hopefully I can just push it back into place.

teneighty wrote: »

A photo of the roof would probably help?

My contribution is......be careful up the ladder. I know a couple of people who came to an untimely end doing similar "easy" roofing jobs.

I got the ladder out but couldn't work out how to attach the standoff thingy, so I couldn't get a photo. I should've asked the guttering people for one in hindsight.

I'm not that comfortable with the idea of going up a ladder anyway, so yeah -- I don't think I'll risk it myself. I've seen my next-door neighbour using a ladder to paint the house and climb up on the roof, so maybe I'll see if I can get him to do me a favour. :-)

MichaelCNichols

Yep, try pushing it back to its place. But, if you're not sure how to do, it'll always be best to hire a roof expert.

SailorSam

When i've been up the ladder in the past i got these sort of things. The longest and strongest i could get. And every few feet i drilled the wall and left one in. So now wherever i need to put the ladder i only need to get a piece of rope to secure it while i'm working.

http://www.screwfix.com/p/easyfix-zinc-plated-screw-eyes-8ga-x-40mm-10-pack/15400