felt and battons

Eve1

Hello everyone, are tf is finally up and we are considering doing the felt and battons on the roof ourselves in order to save some cash as we are over budget on our build. We will have some supervision from my relation who is a carpenter but we have never done anything like this before. Does anyone have any tips or advice, safety precautions etc or are we just pure crazy? We have to do it asap in order to have the tf sealed for the windows.

Z

Youre not pure crazy, its very doable

yop

Eve, you wud need someone to show u the way first then let you off, just to be sure to be sure to get someone who would give u pointers.

It is very handy to do. Not sure about sealing in before windows come though, that should not be an issue to have them in before

Eve1

Yeah hopefully we'll get a helping hand for a few hours and then let loose. We have to have the felt on before the windows arrive as they are wooden on the inside and the rain would ruin them.

yop

Sorry Eve.

That would make sense. We paid Mark 900 euro to felt and batten our gaff while he was there

rooferPete

Hi Eve,

Is it standard felt or a good quality non tear type like Starex or Tyvek ?

Make sure the battons are kept straight or no self respecting roofer will have anything to do with slating it, maybe tiling but hmmmm hold that thought Pete

If there are no dormers it is possible to do fairly easy but only with good quality underlay, do you have a Paslode nailer or similar ? they might be worth hiring out for the speed.

As a last resort you can lath the roof with templates if you have the first lath straight, take care up there one wrong step or a knot in the timber and any price can appear cheap.

Not suggesting you wouldn't spend the required amount, just pointing out a couple of the obvious dangers.

.

GreeBo

sorry for the hijack, but its somewhat related
while in the attic I noticed a large enough hole in the felt, tbh it looked like something had made it rather than a tear, it was kinda circular with rough edges about the size of a tennis ball.
Its halfway up the roof so I reckon it would be a pain in the posterior for me to fix. There is no evidence of rain getting in (fibreglass is dry and not stained)
how serious is this? and how would I go about fixing, tar a patch over it?

YAPP

Usually a good idea to let the roofers (fitting the slates/tiles) do the felt & battens for ya, then there in the way that suits them,....

nothing worse than the awkward roofer coming in blaming the last guy of all sorts like fitting the battens at wrong centres, or laying the valley boards wrong, or not being nailed off correctly...

saying that, if the tf erector is on site, it prob wont cost much more to get them to do it to the roofers spec and they have all the tools there,

are ther many valleys of hips, that would be an indication of wether you'd attempt it or not yerselves. beware, crossing valleys can be cumbersome for the beginner,
and watch the lead .....

Also,
Good advise Pete, use a non tearable roofing membrane; better than that old soft bitumen crap that used to go on roofs fado fado....

Eve1

Thanks for the advice, it is a very straight forward roof just a few velux so hopefully we'll be ok. The tf people were going to charge €600 so considering we are so over budget we have no option but to do it ourselves. It's so bad timing before Christmas to get roofers etc