How To Set Out Battens For A Slate Roof

Spacing the battens.

How to set out battens for a slate roof.

An awful lot of people including builders and roofers get the layout of a new roof wrong right from the start subsequently they end up with a leaking roof or one that just looks awful. The updated bs 5334 code of practice for slating and tiling specifies a number of batten sizes based upon the span of the rafters and the product being used. Roofing battens are nailed into the rafters or roof joists or trusses and provide support for the roof tiles or slates. Battens may be hidden by the roof covering but their purpose is to provide a reliable anchor that tiles or slates can be fixed securely to.

How to space roof tiles and space roof battens or laths. It also allows you to determine the holing gauge distance from hole to tail of slate and the number of linear metres of batten per m 2 of roof. Roofing batten common sizes of tile lath slate lath or tile batten. This table allows you to confirm the correct batten gauge distance between battens for your chosen slate length and lap.

Whether you re building a new house or refurbishing an old one installing the roof battens is an important step. Roof battens and gauge the gauge is the space between the roof battens this will set the overlap of your chosen slate in most cases. What roof pitch do i need for what slate size generally speaking 20 degrees is the lowest advisable pitch for a slate roof depending on the size of the slates and how much that the roof is exposed to.