Which are the best quality composite fascia boards, soffit boards, roof membrane, slate fixings and ridge tile bedding compound?

[JamieK]

Hi There,

 

We have a house that was built in 1923.

 

We plan to have the roof slates replaced, as currently the house has the original slates and no damp proof membrane under the tiles.

 

The house is very tall. There's a garage with a pitched roof built closely next to one side of the house, so access to the roof from that side of the house is very difficult. The previous owners should have built a garage with a flat roof (not thought through properly).

 

The current fascia boards and soffits are the original in timber.

 

When we have the roof slates replaced, we plan to have some composite fascias and soffits installed so these are low maintenance and don't need regularly painting, as this would cost money (may need scaffolding every time its done.

 

If the current timber fascias are sound, we can use composite capping board.

 

Our questions are as follows:

 

Which are the best quality brands of composite fascia / capping boards and composite soffit boards?

My parents have used Eurocell before on their garage, which seem good quality.

I've also heard of PRP Roofline products.

 

I visited our local Eurocell depot recently. They were very helpful.

 

One thing I was told was the coloured fascia boards are foil covered. The white fascia's aren't foil covered.

It seems Eurocell offers a 20 year guarantee on the white fascia, but its not clear what the guarantee is for the coloured fascias (that are foil covered).

I was told that the foil covered coloured fascias could be prone to blistering if fully exposed to extreme weather conditions, such as strong sunlight, cold weather etc.

Obviously these composite fascias are exposed to stronger sunlight during summer months (its a tall house), but they will have a guttering system fixed to them so this will provide some protection.

 

What is the possibility that the coloured, foil covered fascias might blister in the weather conditions experienced in Manchester?

We'd probably prefer to use coloured (black or anthracite) as the white would look dirty in time and not easy to clean.

 

Regarding the composite soffit boards, we feel that solid boards may be best. The hollow ones look a little cheap and fragile.

The other option is vented soffit boards. Are these really necessary? We're concerned that this could allow wasps to nest; we've had issues with this in our current loft.

 

Which is the best quality roof membrane to use?

 

Our roofer has suggested that it may be better to use stainless steel clips rather than nails to fix the roof tiles to the battens. It seems these are quite new on the market.

We obviously want the slates to stay in place for another 100 years.

Are these proven to be better than nails to achieve a firm fix over a period of many years? I appreciate these aren't tested over a long period.

If not, what type of slate nails are best? Stainless steel, hot-dipped galvanised, zinc plated etc?

 

Finally, our roofer has suggested to use bedding compound (Flexim Roof Putty) rather than sand-cem mortar to bed the ridge and hip tiles.

The weather is not predictable in Manchester, so using sand-cement mortar may be difficult (it might rain during application).

I can see the benefit in using Roof Putty, but this is a newer material so there are risks.

What's the predicted life of Roof Putty for bedding / pointing ridge and hip tiles?

 

Any help with the above questions would be appreciated.

 

Cheers

 

Jamie

 

 

[SteamyTea]

Welcome

 

I can't really help with the facia question, other than I like GRP, but then I know a bit about it.

But regarding your slating, have you considered putting in roof integrated PV, generally there is not much price difference, and you get electricity from it.

[Tetrarch]

I'm just having my house re-roofed as part of its refurb and I've gone for slates - I have literally just ordered my (black) stainless steel clips - they are not cheap - I just paid £385 for 3,000

 

To answer your nails question, my roofer offered me the choice of stainless clips or copper nails. Copper heads (apparently) deform more and form a tighter, flatter seal that any other nail, thus the tile above is not pushed up by any protrusion from the nails themselves

 

WRT to facia, mine is a new roof and I don't want ANY maintenance. With this in mind my research led me to powder-coated aluminium, specifically the Alumasc Skyine range. This seemed to price up at around £85 for a 3m profiled fascia and a similar amount for a soffit. For a 36m roof this would have worked out around £2,000. I showed my roofer the Skyline range and particularly the corner detail that I admired.

 

My roofer then told me that he knew someone who formed aluminium roofing sheets and then he disappeared into deepest Kent

 

The next day he turned up with a Foffit - a single piece aluminium extrusion that has fixed beautifully to my new plywood wooden framework

 

 

 

 

Regards

 

Tet

[LnP]

If you're replacing the slates with new artificial ones, you should follow the manufacturer's advice on nails. I re-roofed a house with Redland clay tiles and they recommended aluminium nails. I suppose they're thinking about the roof being there for the next 100 years and galvanised ones won't last that long, especially as they'll get scratched as they're driven in. Here's the Redland guidance.