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Wood walkways for cats on very hot felt roof


Arc_11

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Hello, I am looking for some advice and ideas on how to put something, possibly 120mm wide decking planks on a flat felt roof, its the type of roof that is made of tar and grit that is melted on when installing, it was installed in 2015, so not too old.

 

The reason is my cats have been burning their feet when walking across it in all the hot weather we have had recently and it is impossible to stop them, they can get to it easily from the walls running next to it and the neighbors garden as their level is as high as our roof.

 

No humans will be walking on them ever.

 

I was thinking of buying 120mm wide by 25mm thick 2.4 meter lengths that they have on the Wickes website and treating them for rot and simply laying them down all the way around the edges and one across the middle.  The cats will definitely follow these as they stick to the shadows as much as possible when the sun is out anyway.

 

Would this be OK, or would it damage the roof, would it cause too much indentation into the roof over time and damage it, should I bed the planks in with adhesive or cement to stop movement to help reduce damage?  If so what type of cement/adhesive?

 

Are there any other ideas people might have to achieve the same goal?  I do not want to cover the entire roof, just something around the edges and across the middle from the doors/catflap of the upper floor we have going out to it.

 

Photos of roof are attached, thank you for any help you can give.

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Boards will probably blow away if not fixed down which gives you a challenge ! You can’t fix through the roof membrane or it will leak, concrete slabs will heat up too (although not as much as felt) so you need a way to attach the boards to something heavy. 

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Thank you PeterW, Yes wind is definitely another factor to consider, I definitely will not be fixing through the roof!  Although you have given me a possible idea, I could fix some kind of structure to the pink wall (avoiding the leading!) in that picture and something coming up from way down over the sides of the building and then if I screw all the planks together with horizontal screws forming a square with a piece fixed running down the middle too that should make it quite heavy.

Edited by Arc_11
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Thanks guys all good ideas, and good point about the possible toilet issue hahaha!  You have all been so helpful! I am worried about using stepping stones due to the weight issue, just a bit of old bird muck on the roof leaves an impression! You can just see it in the first two pictures there.

Edited by Arc_11
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Forgive me, I'm tryung to save you time and money.

To Bowdlerise Eliot (Gumbie cat?):

 

Cats will do what they do do

and there's no doing anything about it, so

 

If the cats have been  walking across the material, then their feet aren't so hot that they won't  use the roof.

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2 hours ago, Arc_11 said:

The reason is my cats have been burning their feet when walking across it in all the hot weather we have had recently and it is impossible to stop them

 

Are we talking trips to the vet or do you just think they've burnt their feet?

 

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Thanks guys, no trips to the vet but one of them has a bit of a sore dew claw, not even sure if its the roof so im just assuming, im gonna keep an eye on it to see if it gets any worse before I take action.  The thing that made me realize it was reading in the news about cats burning their feet in the snow, so it deff happens sometimes, and they do stick to cooler surfaces when they can as they go straight for the shadows.

Edited by Arc_11
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What about something like kitchen carpet? It could, possibly, be glued down as it is in kitchens and would not absorb much water and so become heavy. Flotex is great and comes in designs that mimic oak plank flooring so would not look out of place.

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How about just bonding down some thin cement type boards, the type used for under cloaking? 

 

You would want them laid in the direction of the roof fall so as not to cause a dam effect. 

 

 

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If I really wanted to do it I would glue down something mildly insulating, which could be an offcut of insulation, or for something more durable perhaps plasitc fasciaboards which come in 5m lengths at about £12-15 a pop.

 

If you are doing work you could use offcuts of windowboards  or even spares, which - if you don't have any - someone on here will have.

Edited by Ferdinand
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