On 18/09/2011 14:02, John Rumm wrote:
On 18/09/2011 10:26, AL_n wrote:

I want to remove the bottom row of cement ties on my pitched roof, in
order
to lay a strip of damp proof membrane under the lower edge of the felt
which has disintegrated where it projects from under the tiles.

The tiles are fairly larhge (I guess about 40cm x 50 cm or so). Each tile
is nailed, at the top, to a betten. How do I extract the nail, when it is
covered by the tile above? And how do I replace the nail when
restoring the
tile to its original position, after the felt work is done?

This job varies is difficulty depending how windy the location, and how
the roofers did it... modern practice quite often nails the first course
or couple of courses, and then does some of the others. See if the
course above can be lifted a bit and then slid up under the tiles above.
This will expose the nail on the tile on the bottom row. You may find
that you need to go up a couple of rows to find an un-nailed one, then
then work back down. If they are all nailed, then its a bit harder! You
may be able to prise the nail free by lifting the bottom edge (then
again it might snap the tile - so have a spare handy). Alternatively you
may be able to cut the nail with a slater's "rip" slid up an hooked over
the nail.


How true! We're only in a moderately windy location and not nailed at
all. Generally agree and I was going to suggest the slater's ripper as
well, but then I thought these are really aimed at the much softer
copper nails used for slates. I suspect they won't touch steel ones,
unless they are short and only just nipped into the batten. Other
posters have already mentioned the felt protectors, which are definitely
on the list for my next roof (if there is one).