Victorian roof with no felt under slates

Legacy_user

My Victorian house has no felt underneath the slates - does it matter?

Gloomendoom

You need to take the tiles off to do it. Your house is probably no different to a million others.

If it hasn't caused a problem up to now, I certainly wouldn't bother unless you are replacing the the roof anyway.

hollydays

How have you discovered this,

neilmcl

All houses over a certain age with original slate roofs will be the same, as is mine. The reality is though that your roof is likely to be at the end of it's life and whilst the slates will be in a decent condition the nails holding them in place will be starting to perish. So whilst yo can happily keep it going by replacing any slates that slip and fall off there will be a point when you may consider replacing the roof. This is the time you'd get new battens and felt laid.

neilmcl

Assuming the roof timbers themselves are OK a re-roof usually just entails re-felting, new battens and then your slate/tile of choice. Often, if you have slate and they're in good condition there's no reason they couldn't be reused.

no1catman

gabriel73195 wrote: »

So you mean the entire roof will need replacing including the wooden bits or you just mean the slate, nails, and felt?

Unless there's any water damage to the timber, they'll stay - they'll probably have bigger dimensions than any modern replacement. Check, with your Local Council - there may be Grants available for repair of older properties.
My previous property was built circa 1896 had a ridge tile come down or rather bounced down - trouble was had a turnerised roof leak wasn't cured until I had a new one!
If and when you have it done - I'd stick to slate - tiles are heavier - you may get the roof bowing a bit with the weight. Just look around the neighborhood and see.

And the Semi I moved into built in 1939 - no roofing felt!!

DigForVictory

You should manage to get away without worries for a while, but you can put money on it needing work just as the rainy season settles in.

See how you go but squirrel a bit each month in unhappy anticipation?
Definitely stick to what you've got & recycle as much as you are allowed to.

That said the re-roofing squad do not hang around - and can work in all sorts of weather so long as it's mostly above zero & windspeeds are low. It's usually the scaffolders who are responsible for the lead in time & cost.
(Said with wry affection for all involved.)

Also when you have to, it may not hurt too badly to really bite the bullet & get all the insulation as close to current spec as you can. Which does pay for itself pretty swiftly & helps resale value as the running costs are lower.

newatc

My current house was built in 1931. Last year I finally got around to reroofing after having to do several small repairs over the years.
The Roofers said the roof timbers were in excellent condition and didn't need any work/replacement.

Fire_Fox

gabriel73195 wrote: »

The surveyor pointed it out and listed it. When asked he said about 1/3 to 1/4 of houses have no felt.

Put your further questions to your surveyor.

gabriel73195 wrote: »

It's in overall good condition and I had a good quality survey done ie not the el cheap version, not the structural one but I believe it's called the Home Valuation Report in the region of about £500.

With respect, no you did not. A valuation report is a valuation report, and a structural survey is a structural survey.

Robby1988

Our house was built in 1860 and still has the original welsh slate roof, no felt. It still does the job, however re-roofing is one of the priority jobs on the list as there are a few too many led tingles up there now holding slates in place for my comfort.

It's nothing to lose sleep about about, you just have to be more 'on it' with maintenance and check your roof routinely. Slipped slates and knackered pointing on the ridge (all easy, cheap defects to fix) will result in water dripping into your loft space, especially wind driven rain.

rach_k

Our 1900 house has no felt under the tiles. I know the roof was redone sometime not that long ago - we're having the attic done soon and the builder says the tiles are fine to reuse - but no idea why felt wasn't added. If we weren't having the roof off anyway, we'd not bother adding it now. We'd just carry on checking it regularly during rain!