Having a new house can be one of the best experiences anyone could ever have. However, this experience can be tampered with if water consistently leaks into your home through the roof.
A faulty roof felt can be held accountable for this.
You cannot replace your roof felt without removing the tiles. The roof felt is installed under the tiles. To access the roof felt, first remove the tiles. With no obstruction from the tiles, you can now correctly replace your roof felt.
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Can You Replace the Roof Felt Without Removing the Tiles?
If you discover your roof felt faulty, you can replace the felt. To do this successfully, you need to remove the roof tiles, as the roof felt is installed under the roof tile.
The question then is, do you need to replace and repair the roof tiles? If your roof tiles are not faulty, there is no need to replace them.
After replacing the roof felt, you can return the previous tiles to their positions. However, if your roof tiles are faulty, you must replace them immediately.
Note that some can develop a fault in removing a roof tile. Therefore, you should have new tiles on standby just in case.
Moreover, it is possible to replace a faulty roof tile without tampering with the roof felt, but it is not feasible to replace a defective roof felt without tampering with the roof tiles.
However, you must inspect these two compartments very well, and you should replace them simultaneously to avoid further complications.
Note: There is a clear distinction between a roof tile and a roof felt.
While a roof felt is a natural or synthetic protective coated base that repels water from the ceiling, the roof tiles are metal, concrete, or even plastic materials hung to a roof’s framework by nails.
How to Replace Roof Felt Under Tiles?
You must take several steps to replace the roof felt under the tiles. These steps are below:
- Remove the roof tiles
- Ensure that there is no deficiency in the roof timbers. If there is any deficiency, ensure to fix it immediately.
- Remove the faulty roof felt.
- Using the bottom of the roof slope as your starting point, run the roof felt along the edge. Ensure that the roof felt overhangs the fascia, or you would have done it wrongly. The effect would be the lower edges of the felt would reach the middle of the gutter.
- It would be best to use the galvanized one-inch clout nails, such as the Hillman Group 42041 Galvanized Roofing Nails. To purchase these nails, click here.
- Ensure the nails are in the middle of the width of the felt, ten inches from the fascia.
- Take out excess slack in the felt by pulling the felt as you walk along the roof.
- The first strip of felt lies,
- Lay the next strip of felt over the first felt, ensuring at least a four-inch overlap.
- Ensure that horizontal overlaps are nothing more than six inches
- Depending on the size of the roof, continue this process with more strips of felt.
- Fold the felt over the top of the ridge and ensure it slides down the other side by at least six inches.
Note: The roof’s ridge is the horizontal line that intersects the two roof planes.
- Nail the felt from the first side to the rafters on the first side.
- Spread the felt over the outer rafter of the verge at the end of the roof.
- Trim felt to allow a two-inch space onto the wall.
- Take the felt from the first side and overlap it around the second side by six inches.
Note: Replacing a felt when faulty is very important. If you do not replace your faulty felt when rain falls, it will leak through the roof tiles, and the roof felt falling into the house.
After all, the purpose of a roof felt is to ensure excess water does not leak through the roof into the home.
How Much Does it Cost to Replace Felt Under Roof Tiles?
The average cost of replacing a roof felt under tiles is £200 or $260. Therefore, the total cost of handling this replacement will be between £2200 and £7000, estimated in US dollars as $2859 and $9099.
As noticed in the analysis above, the cost is not static, and thus, they may differ in different situations.
However, to ensure you got your money’s worth in the cost calculation for replacing your roof felt, there are several factors you must consider when figuring out the cost of replacing a good felt under tiles.
They are:
#1. Whether You Will Replace The Roof Tiles
While replacing the roof felt, you must remove the roof tiles. First, however, you need to consider if you will return the roof tiles at once.
If you do not replace the roof tiles, you do not need to add the cost of the roof tiles to your budget.
However, you should carry out roof tile replacement simultaneously because if the roof tiles wear out later, it will only cost you more to have them replaced.
Note that roof tile maintenance would be difficult during the replacement of the roof underlayment(felt). This fact gives you more reason to replace the roof tiles.
#2. Scaffolding Costs
You should hire professionals to repair the roof felt during the repair process. Here, scaffolding comes in.
Scaffolding is a temporary structure outside the building, usually made of wood or metal, that allows the workers to gain easy access to the roof.
Thus, if you hire professionals, you need to include scaffolding costs in your budget.
#3. Which Material Will be Used for the Roofing Felt
When replacing the roofing felt, you need to know which material you will use. When picking this material, you must consider the quality, durability, and even the cost of the material.
#4. Skip Costs
Hiring a skip will become necessary if you decide to replace the tiles. These skips are exhausted in the disposal of old roof tiles.
Thus, you will need to include the cost of obtaining a skip in your analysis.
#5. Cost of Battens
The battens hold the long edges of the roofing felt in place. It is these battens that will carry the tiles.
#6. Expecting Hidden Damage
Sometimes, the roof felt is not the only component of the roof that causes the leaks. For instance, there could be a damaged tile out of sight.
Therefore, you must budget for these sorts of damages, or else you may face a loss in the replacement process.
#7. The complexity of the roof.
A roof can either be simple, intermediate, or complex. The higher the complexity of the roof, the more difficult it will be to replace the roof felt.
Therefore, analyze the complexity of your roof and its possible influence on the cost of your felt replacement.
#8. Weather Conditions
In harsh weather conditions like winter, several risks include replacing a roof underlayment. First, due to the dangers, the workers will be taking, there may be an increment in labor costs.
Conclusion
While it is not possible to replace a roof felt without replacing the roof tiles, it is most advisable to replace them simultaneously.
Moreover, seek the services of a professional roof constructor to fix issues with your roof. Whenever there is a leak, do not attempt to resolve the situation on your own.
