leaking roof

[Gyn_Paul]

Our house roof is in very good condition; probably less than 30 y.o., comprising black, diamond-shaped fibro-cement 'slates' held in place on lathes with the usual 'S'-shaped crochets.

In last night's rain we woke up to hear water dripping quite quickly on the attic floor.  Went up to investigate and discovered rain dripping off one of the crochets, running off a sodden lath.

There was no obvious place where the water was getting in, but several tile edges were wet. Anyway, I prodded and probed to try and find a hole and in the process pushed and then released the wettest tile a few mms away from its neighbour. The dripping stopped at once !

I wedged a bit of wire under the tile (1.5mm lighting without the insulation, since you ask), put a towel down, and went back to bed. The rain continued to hammer down for the next hour or two but in the morning, I found the towel was virtually bone dry.

Can tight-fitting flat roofing materials, like the diamond tiles, suffer from capiliarity, I wonder ?

Anyone else had this happen?

p

[Anton Redman]

We had three small leaks in the previously bone dry but newly relaid with mebrane roof on Thursday. The rain was blowing very hard from the North which is very unusual for us. I will investigate when it stops raining.