Roof Torching Mortar

This mortar and the process is called torching.

Roof torching mortar.

The dangers of rusty iron in old buildings. Mixing and making hot lime mortar. In the days before roofing felt torching or lime mortar was used on the underside of tiles or slates to keep them in place and to prevent strong winds from getting under the tiles and lifting them. What materials should be used in old houses.

The torching on clay tile roofs contributed to securing them in the days before nibs were added to hold them on the wooden battens. There are 2 usual variations of lime mortar iside the loft space if it is torched it is basically rendering the inside of the roof or semi torched is pointing to the battens. Where slates are particularly heavy the roof may begin to split apart along the roof line. Is your roof covered with clay tiles.

Torching is most commonly encountered to the underside of old stone slate roofs. Surveys of thatched roofing. A common repair to slate roofs is to apply torching a mortar fillet underneath the slates attaching them to the battens. Impartial advice on damp and damp.

Originally the only recognised roof under coating was the application of sand lime mortar reinforced with animal hair applied to the headlaps of double lapped slates or tiles. Both are there to stop wind. Torching is still used today in heritage properties as an alternative to a modern breathable membrane. Traditional buildings did not have bituminous underfelt beneath the slate or tile roofs.

This may applied as either a repair to hold slipping slates or pre emptively on construction. Unusual for a house built in the thirties. Timber oak or elm what not to do to a timber frame. Traditional variations of a physical secondary barrier against wind driven snow and rain include reeds laid between the tiles and the battens and a coating of mortar known as torching to the underside of the tiles or slates.

It is common for the torching to deteriorate and for pieces to fall away from the inside of the roof. Over the years this torching can crumble and break normally falling with a thud on the floor of the roof space during the middle of the night. In the days before roofing felt torching or lime mortar was used on the underside of tiles or slates to keep them in place and to prevent strong winds from getting under the tiles and lifting them. A word about timber treatment.

Goodwill feb 27 2009.