Hello, and let me thank you in advance for any help anybody can give.
There is a brick / stone shed next to my property, about 60 feet long. I have a 15 foot section of this, the other sections belong to my neigbours. The roof looks generally good, except there is a lot of 'growth' on it, brambles and the like. I have cleared my roof basically, and have run across a problem.
The tiles are clay - and very old, and the ridge tiles are also clay. There is no concrete to be seen, and I believe that all the tiles are held on by nibs that sit behind batons, and are held there by the weight of the tiles above, is that correct? Now, the top row is thus held on, supposedly, by the weight of the ridge tiles, which are not anchored by concrete, but are held in place by gravity and that fact that they sit on a ridge and can thus not slip... is that right?
If this is correct, then 'image A' I have drawn shows how it should look.
However, it actually looks like 'image B', ie the ridge tiles don't fully hold the tiles in, but sort of sit on top of the outer edges of the tiles, it sort of looks like either the batons for the top row of tiles is too low down the roof apex, or that the ridge tiles are not quite long enough to reach.
My question is... what do I do? Although the roof is old, the tiles are basically all intact, the timbers are sound and there is felt under the tiles... so I'm reluctant to do anything drastic... it ii, after all, just a shed... or perhaps it should be called an outbuilding.
Any help or advice would be appreciated.