After the rain last week, a piece of soffit fell off, and on inspection the lead valley appears to be leaking. No damage that I can find to actual structural timber, just the piece of wood that the soffit was nailed to. I've cleaned the wood out, and applied wet rot hardener.

1930s house, slate roof, plenty of slipped slates, but none that would have any bearing on this. Found a piece of flashband (I think, and there's no reason to suppose the previous owner did anything fancy like welding a plate on) over the lap between two sections of valley. I'm looking for bodge it again. I don't need a repair that will last for more than two years, possibly even just one winter (quite likely we will do a loft conversion in the near future, and we will definitely redo the whole roof at that time. Is the simplest option to replace the flashband? How would I go about getting it off? I think I'll be happy working with a roof ladder and a belay over the ridge from my climbing gear, though I might just hire a tower.

On Sunday, 12 July 2020 13:15:34 UTC+1, Ben Blaukopf wrote:
After the rain last week, a piece of soffit fell off, and on inspection the lead valley appears to be leaking. No damage that I can find to actual structural timber, just the piece of wood that the soffit was nailed to. I've cleaned the wood out, and applied wet rot hardener.

1930s house, slate roof, plenty of slipped slates, but none that would have any bearing on this. Found a piece of flashband (I think, and there's no reason to suppose the previous owner did anything fancy like welding a plate on) over the lap between two sections of valley. I'm looking for bodge it again. I don't need a repair that will last for more than two years, possibly even just one winter (quite likely we will do a loft conversion in the near future, and we will definitely redo the whole roof at that time. Is the simplest option to replace the flashband? How would I go about getting it off? I think I'll be happy working with a roof ladder and a belay over the ridge from my climbing gear, though I might just hire a tower.

To remove flashband. Heat it up with an electric heat gun to soften the black stuff.


A blowlamp would be a bit dodgy as it'll probably have bitumous roof felt under the slates. (check this from inside.)

On 12/07/2020 13:15, Ben Blaukopf wrote:
After the rain last week, a piece of soffit fell off, and on inspection the lead valley appears to be leaking. No damage that I can find to actual structural timber, just the piece of wood that the soffit was nailed to. I've cleaned the wood out, and applied wet rot hardener.

1930s house, slate roof, plenty of slipped slates, but none that would have any bearing on this. Found a piece of flashband (I think, and there's no reason to suppose the previous owner did anything fancy like welding a plate on) over the lap between two sections of valley. I'm looking for bodge it again. I don't need a repair that will last for more than two years, possibly even just one winter (quite likely we will do a loft conversion in the near future, and we will definitely redo the whole roof at that time. Is the simplest option to replace the flashband? How would I go about getting it off? I think I'll be happy working with a roof ladder and a belay over the ridge from my climbing gear, though I might just hire a tower.


Use a hot air gun to soften the mastic under it and use a wallpaper
stripping tool or similar to scrape it off. Clean the lead with petrol
or similar solvent and lightly abrade it, to remove surface oxides. If
the sun makes the lead warm to the touch, you don't need to do anything
more. Otherwise gently warming the underside of the flashband will help
it adhere. Once in place, press it down firmly with a wallpaper seam roller.

--
Colin Bignell