How much do you know about your roof? If something were to go wrong, would you be able to explain it to a professional roofer? Never be in doubt again, with this handy guide to common roof parts and what purpose they serve:
- Barge Board – this is a board that’s fitted onto the end of a gable roof. It sits just below the tiles and follows the roof slope from the eaves to the ridge at the top.
- Batten – these are strips of softer wood which are used to attach plasterboard and roof coverings to. When they are being used to hold roof covering, they will be fixed to the rafters and called roof tile battens.
- Cornice – this is the point of the roof as it projects from the side walls of the property
- Courses – these refer to the rows of tiles, slats or shingles as they are laid horizontally across the roof
- Sheathing – this is the material that the tiles or shingles are applied to. It can consist of plywood or strand board and is also known as decking.
- Dormer – a dormer is a structure of walls and roof that surround a feature window, coming out from a sloping roofline.
- Drip Edge – the very useful metal strip in an ‘L’ shape which runs the length of the roof edge for water to run down clear of the side of the property.
- Eaves – the eaves are the point at which the bottom edges of a roof extend out past the edge of the structure of the house.
- Fascia – the fascia refers to a board covering the rafter section of the eaves. It is found behind the guttering and the eaves which are also known as soffits. For a supplier of Soffit And Fascia Boards TRACKING, visit https://www.absolutebuildingplastics.co.uk/upvc-fascia-boards
- Flashing – the term given to sheets of metal which are placed at various points on the roof to prevent any leaking.
- Gable – when there is a ridge roof, the gable is the triangular upper section of the wall that ends the ridged roof. It sits above the main section of the property.
- Hip – where two supporting walls of a roof join, the outside angle where the junction meets at both sides is known as the hip.
- Joist – the surface called sheathing on which the tiles are fixed is applied to a horizontal structure known as a joist in flat roofs.
- Louvers – required for the important job of ventilation in a roof space, louvers are slatted mechanisms placed in a gable or soffit to maintain a regular air temperature underneath the roof.
- Ridge – the very peak of the roof, it’s the horizontal strip running the width of the property at the top of the two sloping roof panes.
- Slope or Pitch – quite simply, the slope or pitch of a roof is calculated by taking the number of vertical inches per every 12 inches of distance on the horizontal line.
- Truss – a truss is a combination of components for holding up the rafters and supporting the entire roof space.
- Underlay or Felt – this is a material made from asphalt or tar paper which is applied to the sheathing before any tiles or shingles are put in place. It is used to offer increased protection from water and moisture collection.
