An eaves tray is a strip of plastic fitted at the bottom edge of a pitched roof. Its job is to support the roofing felt or underlay at the eaves and guide any water that gets under the tiles into the gutter. It is a small, cheap part, but it protects some of the most … Read more
Lead flashing is the strip of lead that seals the joints where a roof meets a wall, a chimney or another roof. It has been used on British buildings for centuries, and it is still the first choice for many roofers because it is durable, easy to shape and long lasting. This guide covers the … Read more
Roof ventilation rarely gets a thought until a musty smell or mould appears in the loft, but it is doing constant, quiet work behind the scenes. As homes have become better insulated and more airtight over the years, the roof space above them has often become colder relative to the living space below, which is … Read more
Underlay sits beneath every tile or slate on a pitched roof, and most homeowners never see it or think about it until something goes wrong. It is a genuinely important layer, acting as a second line of defence against wind-driven rain and snow that gets past the roof covering itself, and the type used affects … Read more
Roof valleys and guttering do the same basic job in different places. Both exist to collect and channel rainwater safely away from a building. Both are also easy to forget about until something goes wrong, since neither is visible from ground level in the way a cracked tile or damaged chimney often is. What a … Read more
If you have noticed cracked mortar along the edge of your roof at the gable end, you have already found the problem that dry verge systems were designed to solve. The verge is where roof tiles meet the brickwork, and it is one of the more exposed parts of the roof to wind and weather. … Read more
A leaking roof rarely announces itself clearly. Water often enters at one point and travels along beams, felt, or insulation before finally showing up as a stain somewhere else entirely, which is why so many leaks get misdiagnosed at first. Here is how to actually find the source, what to do immediately, and when the … Read more
Ridge tiles sit along the very top of a pitched roof, covering the gap where two roof slopes meet, and they are the last piece fixed when a roof is built or replaced. They are also one of the most common points of failure, since a loose ridge tile rarely causes an obvious, dramatic leak … Read more
Terraced houses make up a huge share of UK housing, and their roofs come with a set of issues that simply do not apply to a fully detached home. The main reason is that a terraced roof rarely belongs to just one property. Structures, and sometimes maintenance responsibility, are often shared with the house next … Read more
Flashing rarely gets noticed until it fails, but it is one of the most important parts of any roof. It is the thin material fitted at joints and junctions to stop water getting in, and a large share of roof leaks trace back to flashing that has cracked, corroded, or simply worked loose over time. … Read more