In private construction, slate for roofing is used quite widely. One of the advantages of this material is a simple installation technology that allows you to do the work on your own. Consider how to lay slate so that the coating is durable and lasts a long time.
Slate - This is a material created on the basis of asbestos and Portland cement. Most often, it has a wavy profile, but completely flat sheets of slate are also produced.
For roofing, as a rule, corrugated slate is chosen, since when it is used, a more reliable coating is obtained.
Flat sheets can only be used as roofing if the slope angle is at least 30 degrees.
Knowing how to properly lay slate, installation work can be done independently, saving on paying for the services of construction teams.
Construction of a crate for laying slate
Before you start laying slate, you need to prepare a reliable and solid foundation for it. To do this, build a crate of dry bars with a section of 60 by 60 mm.
Advice! For the construction of the crate, it is not recommended to use poorly dried timber, as well as knotty boards, since the crate, built from low-quality wood, will not be able to withstand the loads exerted on the roof.
Boards roof battens nailed to the rafters with a step of 400-500 mm. During the construction of the crate, it is necessary to strive to ensure that an integer number of sheets can be placed on it, both in the horizontal and vertical directions.
Advice! If you can’t place whole sheets, then you will have to cut the sheet, which will be the penultimate one in the row. Trimming the last leaf in a row is strongly discouraged.
Slate sheet mounting technology
We begin to lay slate - how to lay this material so that the coating is airtight?
Before starting the installation of sheets, they are inspected for defects - cracks, chips, etc. Only whole sheets that do not have serious damage are allowed into work.
At the preliminary stage slate installation it is recommended to mark the places for fastening and pre-drill holes with an electric drill.
Also, it may be necessary to trim the corners of the sheets or cut some of the sheets in half.The need for a particular operation is determined by the chosen installation technology.
There are two ways to lay slate:
- With offset rows;
- With cut corners.
It is necessary to choose a laying method depending on the design of the roof. . For example, with wide, but low slopes, it is recommended to lay sheets with an offset. If the height of the slope is significant, and the width is small, then it is more convenient to use the second method of laying sheets.
Consider how to lay slate without shifting sheets. When laying slate, it is important to prevent more than two sheets of roofing material from overlapping.
To solve this problem, sawing off the corners on sheets that are joined vertically.
So, for example, if sheets are laid on the left side of the slope, then the left corners of the sheets will have to be cut off. When mounted in the opposite direction - right.
When laying with an offset, it is necessary to ensure that the joint of the sheets in the bottom row does not coincide with the joint of the sheets in the next row. When using this method, the consumption of material, as a rule, increases slightly.
How is the slate attached to the crate?
- As already mentioned, it is advisable to make holes for installing fasteners in advance. In this case, the diameter of the hole should be 2 mm larger than the diameter of the nail rod.
- For fastening, special zinc-coated nails with a large hat are used. Under them it is necessary to install a washer made of roofing felt or rubber, this increases the water resistance of the structure.
- It is not recommended to nail the slate tightly; according to the standard, the nail head should only lightly touch the surface of the slate. Nails are installed exclusively in the crest of the wave, and not in its deflection. Sheets that will be located at the edges must be additionally fixed.
Recommendations for the installation of slate roofing and maintenance
- It is better to cover with slate roofs that have the simplest possible geometry. It is extremely difficult to perform high-quality installation on roofs with numerous grooves and valleys.
- It is undesirable to cover with slate roofs that have a slope angle of less than 15 degrees (and in areas with a heavy snow load - less than 25 degrees).
- When performing installation and when caring for the roof, you should try not to step on the slate. Wooden walkways are used to move along the roof.
- The slate coating can become covered with moss and lichen over time, so the question arises of how to clean the slate. This can be done using a regular brush with metal bristles or a drill with a brush attachment. In addition, cleaning can be carried out using a compact car wash with a pressurized water jet.
- To exclude the growth of lichens and moss, which contribute to the destruction of the coating, it is advisable to apply a layer of antiseptic solution to the slate. This can be done with a sprayer or a regular brush.
- To give the roof decorative properties and increase its service life, it is worth painting the slate. To do this, you should use special acrylic paints that are resistant to atmospheric influences exerted on the roof.
conclusions
With the implementation of simple installation rules and proper care, a slate roof can last a fairly long time - 40-50 years.
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