Roof Torching Mortar

The torching on clay tile roofs contributed to securing them in the days before nibs were added to hold them on the wooden battens.

Roof torching mortar.

Bats do not pose a significant threat to the building fabric or the health of the occupants and under section 9 of the wildlife and countryside act 1981 it is an offence to intentionally damage destroy or obstruct access to any place used by bats even when bats are apparently absent or to disturb bats while roosting. This mortar and the process is called torching. It is common for the torching to deteriorate and for pieces to fall away from the inside of the roof. It is not uncommon to find that bats use a roof space.

Roofers who can do this are normally to be found working on heritage properties. A mix of lime mortar mixed with horse hair is often used for this task. Renewing torching is a specialist task. Instead a soft sticky mortar mix was used both to help secure the slates and also prevent draughts.

Where slates are particularly heavy the roof may begin to split apart along the roof line. This system was commonly known as torching and was used before the introduction. 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. 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.

Main office the forge brightling road robertsbridge tn32 5hd phone. This may applied as either a repair to hold slipping slates or pre emptively on construction.