How to Re-Roof your Bulgarian Home

This has been written as an aid for those about to have there BG homes re-roofed. It does not go into full detail but covers the major points. This is intended as a guide only and will not be suitable for all types of houses. It is intended for a BG village house with ‘normal’ BG tiles and not Turkish ones. It will however help you if you have a modicum of common sense and are attempting it yourself or are employing trades men. No mention of safety is given here and again, I leave that to your common sense.

So, let’s start!

Stripping the old roof:

The first step is to strip the roof and find out what is underneath the tiles. You can get a good idea of this before hand by poking your head through your loft hatch and having a look. There are many variations on how this is usually done but they all follow the same basic principles. First is to put something on top of the roof trusses, then cover this with a waterproof material and then put the tiles on. In an older property you may have wooden slats, reeds or rough sawn boards which is then covered with mud. On top of this are the tiles. If you have rough sawn boards leave them. Everything else strip off (keep the old wood for your wood stove in winter)

Assessing the existing roof structure:

Now you have the bare bones. Check all the timbers and see which are damaged, rotten, worm eaten or too weak for the job. Replace these with new ones. I prefer 10cm x 10cm x 400cm square beams but this can change due to the nature and economy of the work.

Sheeting the roof:

Sheeting provides a skin to the roof structure. This is generally not done in the UK. Sheeting massively increases its strength and provides a flat level surface to put the tiles on. Sterling board (or OSB in BG) in sheets of 144cm x 244cm x 1cm are generally used. Thicker OSB boards may be used but again this is a question of economy and the problems that could ensue from the extra weight. Most manufactures specify to fit a WBP (weatherproof and boil proof) sheet in new roof structures. This is an equivalent to marine ply and is perfect for the job. However at about 400% more expensive and much heavier the economics and structural suitability of an old house, they may not be more suitable.

When sheeting the roof it makes sense to spend more time to make the roof flat and level. This is not necessary but gives an easier surface to tile neatly on and give a more aesthetically pleasing finish at the end.

Flashing:

Flashings are the vertical boards at the edge of the roof to which guttering is affixed. At this stage it will make your life easier to affix them now. Make sure they butt up neatly and have been stained, varnished, protected etc.

Waterproofing the roof:

This is simply placing a waterproof material on top of the sheets. Makes sure the sheets overlap by at least 15cm, overhang the lashings by 15cm and use your common sense. The standard material is ‘cherna hartia’ or black bitumastic roofing felt. I prefer breathable membranes (please see my other post on this http://www.ourbulgarianworld.com/index.php?option=com_smf&Itemid=254&topic=470.msg3103;topicseen#new ).

Waterproofing the gullies:

Where you have a gully where two faces of the roof structure meet, this is called a gully. In BG we used sheet tin for this purpose. Again make sure the tin overlaps from top to bottom and that it is about 70cm-90cm wide. It has to be this wide so it extends under the roof tiles. There are various tips and tricks to this but I will not go into this here.


Battening the roof:

Horizontal wooden battens are nailed on top of the waterproof material into the wooden roof structure. You start from the bottom and work your way up. Make sure the bottom row over hangs the roof and flashings by about 4-6 cm. This is so that rain will drip of the bottom row into your guttering. Determine the distance to the next batten up by the type of tiles you have. On long roof structures run a line (a taunt bit of string) from end to end to make sure the run of tiles stay level and straight.

Again there are various tips and tricks to use but you might consider treating the battens to prevent them rotting and vertically battering before horizontally battening to prevent water pooling behind the tiles.

Tiling the roof:

Chances that after you have stripped the roof you will find different style tiles. These will have to sorted into the different styles and make sure that you only use one type of tile on each roof face. You will also find that a lot or inadequate or broken. You will have to source more locally, think neighbours, friends, reclamation yards etc.

Tiling is a skilled job and there is far to much to cover here, Just think about what will happen when you get to the top, sides, gullies and chimneys. How will you seal the tiles again them? Will you cut and form flashing from tin metal or use a big dollop of cement? How ill you dress (cut) the tiles when you reach a gully?

The last job of tiling is to mortar in your ridge tiles. You will most likely need to have sourced extra because when the roof was stripped you will break a lot of them out of their original mortar. Pay extra attention here for durability and waterproofing are most important. The tradition method is to use lots of Var and cement and splatter and smear it all over the roof. This may be effective but it is not pretty.

Guttering;

If you have followed all the directions above then the tiles should overhang the roof and hang in roughly the middle of the guttering. The extra roofing felt/membrane should be trimmed so the in hangs neatly into the bottom of the guttering. This makes the roof work effectively with the guttering and will keep water out or your house.

Guttering can be a black art. You have to have a slope (or run) to move the water to the down pipes to prevent them flooding but on a roof which isn’t level (which most aren’t in BG), this can be tricky to make look aesthetically pleasing. My advice is to spend some times with string and spirit levels.

Placing of down pipes can be tricky. The generally have to sited in the most unsuitable places. Just bear in mind where all the water from the roof will go. This will put a lot of water at ground level in a small area. Just think where it will go and if it could cause flooding or damp problems. Most BG house don’t have a hard runoff sloping from the house like England.

You should now have a lovely renovated roof which is sympathetic to your local environment.


I hope this has been of help.


Jerrard
Jerico Estates

http://www.bulgarianrealestateonline.com

http://www.ourbulgarianworld.com

http://bulgarianslivatree.blogspot.com