aaaagh!

[The Solar King]

I honestly thought we were way passed this sort of thing.

This is a Scottish Slate Roof. There are no battens, the slates are nailed directly to the sarking (close boarding in English parlance). This makes mounting quite interesting and costly. Slates need to be removed. A soaker goes in first. A J shaped bracket is attached through the soaker, and the screw holes well sealed up where they pass through the lead or similar. As is normal, the screws must pass through the sarking board and into the truss below. A flashing is then fitted that covers the flat part of the bracket. Slates are refitted, cut and dressed around the raised part of the flashing. This is at least an extra half day and a lot of lead.

The only alternative is a roof integration system, or use Solar Limpets (correctly fitted).

My roofer had been called to the property as the roof was leaking. He texted these over asking for advice. When I phoned he thought he had Victor Meldrew on the other end.....I don't believe it! Little wonder the roof is leaking.



At best there may be one screw in a truss but unlikley. The screws are only in to the sarking which is 18mm - 22mm thick depending on the age of the property. The pull out on the screws will be minimal with this very small level of insertion. The sarking is only nailed to the trusses. How can anyone have done any form of wind loading calculations on this?

We normally use a longer than specified screw to ensure we are relying on fixing and pull out in the truss only. No allowance is made for the sarking. In some instances in more modern properties, material used for sarking is totally unsuitable to fix anything to.

Apparently the installer can see nothing wrong with what they have done!!!!

The property belongs to a retired couple. Sounds like we will be called to attend. Only recourse (if installers are still in business) will be to their accreditation body, (I really hope it is NAPIT as they do take this kind of thing seriously). Otherwise it is RECC or Trading Standards.

 

[Leesparkykent]

Yeee HAR!!!

 

[a1colly]

Good luck, hopefully punish the cowboys

 

[tgtworsley]

cowboys

Bloody cowboys!!

 

[akaPABLO]

I've heard about this technique before. I remember one of my roofers suggested it before we took the step of re roofing the house. I can imagine there is no membrane and its cemented. Plenty more out there I reckon.

 

[wersolaruk]

This is shocking, we use a clenergy PR0/07 hook fixed directly to the roof truss, puts all weight on to the truss. The slate is then cut around the hook, a copper wire fixing attached and a simple flashing applied all over the hook. this allows movement in up lift and snow load as the hook sits proud by 5-10mm. This install does not comply with mcs012

 

[Worcester]

Methinks judging by the replies so far, that they don't know what a a sarked roof is, not the easiest to find a good solution for - maybe GSE Integration would be the answer

We actually have the same discussion about pullout ongoing with GSE, however it did get MC012 which actually tests pullout

Thoughts?

 

[akaPABLO]

Me thinks those are tile hooks which is why they've been bolted through the slate

 

[wersolaruk]

I know exactly what a sarked roof is, there are several in our neck of the woods and you still use a conventional way of fixing, we however in this situation would put a 4x2 timber running internally along all the fixings so you can get a more sturdy fixing and not really on a fix to 18mm board which is rough as hell.