Lead soakers and flashing at abutment - can flashing lay on tiles as well?

[Oxbow16]

Hi

 

My house needs some lead work at an abutment.  The wall is stone (random rubble), so it's undulating rather than flat.  Also, the wall is rather banana shaped.  As such, I imagine the slates won't sit tight up to the wall and there will in fact be various size gaps between the slates and the wall, and these gaps will expose parts of the soakers beneath.  I hope that all makes sense! 

 

In all I've seen and read, flashing - when with soakers - tends to be just vertical.  In my head it would make more sense to have an L shaped flashing given what I tried to describe above.  If it was just vertical, it would almost encourage water into the gaps on onto the soakers.  I appreciate that's what they are there for.  But with an L shaped flashing, the horizontal section would direct water away from the gaps at the intersections, and onto the slates.  

 

Just wondered what people's thoughts are on this please?  As it's not commonly done like that, I just wanted to check I'm not overlooking something. 

 

Many thanks

   

[PeterW]

Use a hidden gutter run alongside the stonework and lapped into it, then cut the slates to fit with a 50mm nominal gap - don’t try and use soakers

[Oxbow16]

Many thanks for the reply.  

 

Would the hidden gutter work even though the wall is not straight (it's curved like a banana)? 

 

Also, there are sarking boards so there's only a depth of 25mm beneath the slates.  Would this depth be enough for a hidden gutter? 

 

To be honest, I'd rather stick with soakers and flashing as I've spent time looking into that system and figured out what I'd need to buy and do.  It's also what was recommended by roofers who looked at the job.  I thought it was a standard way of dealing with such an abutment?  But if it really is a poor solution, then I guess I can look to revise.  

 

I should add that it is on the side of the house which doesn't see much driving rain/weather.  Previously there was nothing more than a simple flashing crudely cemented to the wall (no soakers or anything beneath).  And it didn't leak when it was like that.  Soakers and flashing done properly will be a vast improvement to how it was.  But will be intrsted to hear more if you think it's a bad solution.  Likewise would be great to hear what anyone else thinks.

 

Many thanks

[Temp]

You can do what you propose but you must have soakers underneath. Sorry if obvious but you can't just have the flashing or water gets blown under.

 

It doesn't look great though in my opinion..

 

 

 

[Temp]

PS if the wall is very uneven so there are wide gaps between wall and slate the lead may need support.

[Oxbow16]

2 minutes ago, Temp said:

You can do what you propose but you must have soakers underneath. Sorry if obvious but you can't just have the flashing or water gets blown under.

 

 

That's good to hear.  And yes, 100% to the soakers underneath   

 

 

3 minutes ago, Temp said:

It doesn't look great though in my opinion..

 

 

It won't be all that visible due to the lay of the land around the house, so aesthetics not massively important.  Also, I was thinking the horizontal on the slates could be 100mm, so perhaps less than in the photo.  Unless anyone thinks is needs to be more than 100mm (that being said, 100mm is 100mm more than nothing, and people usually have nothing, so...)

[Oxbow16]

3 minutes ago, Temp said:

PS if the wall is very uneven so there are wide gaps between wall and slate the lead may need support.

 

I'll have another look when I get up there.  I don't think the gaps are that big.  And the slates are being replaced, so the gaps will be smaller still once the new ones are up.    

 

Many thanks

[Oxbow16]

Having asked about and thought about this some more,  here's what I'm aiming for:

 

- Individual soakers beneath the slates, with 75mm upstands and 150mm horizontals.
- Slate and a halfs for every other slate, instead of using thinner cut slates.
- Flashing in lengths of 1100mm, with 150mm overlaps (so the actual exposed lengths will be 950mm; 4 of which fit the length of the roof perfectly.
- Flashing in upstand only, with NO horizontal pieces on top of the lead. I'll use 150mm width lead for that. So with 25-50mm in the chase, the remainder will be enough to cover the upstand of the soakers. And I won't be stepping the flashing - just straight lines parallel to the roof.

 

Does that all sound ok?

I think perhaps I was overthinking and over-engineering with my idea to have the Z shaped flashing so that a horizontal section could cover the slates. So I'll do without that now.  But for peace of mind I'll use slate and a halfs, and 150mm on the soakers (had originally planned for 100mm). That should keep water from reaching the end of the soakers and creeping in beneath them... Hopefully!

 

Many thanks

Edited June 6, 2023 by Oxbow16

[Temp]

Sounds OK to me. The soaker should be at least 100mm wide under the slate so you have an extra 50mm to cope with any unevenness of the wall that the tile cutting cant cope with. 

Edited June 6, 2023 by Temp