Leaking Rooves on garden sheds.?

your starter for 10 - its roofs.... not rooves.

Shed flat felt roofs are the nations biggest home roofing DIY project, having done roofing personally for 10 years (and as a family business for 35 years) and generally these home spun repairs do not work, or if they do look awful or only last for a couple months.

Ironically, getting a contractor in would likely prove to be more expensive than replacing the whole shed... so not a really practical road to go down.

Right... firstly, buy a really decent quality felt... (capping felt with a green mineral finish), you should spend no less than £20 for a single roll if you want a good decent felt, you can buy felt for less, but the quality is ALWAYS questionable.

The felt itself - we have used Marley tough torch for about 9 years now. It is an elastomeric bonded felt, which in lamens terms means that you heat it up and stick it down, but the felt can breath and shift so not to cause blisters or splits.

Apply the felt directly to the old feltwork if its still solid, old felt acts as a great surface for new felt.

Apply atleast a 3'' overlap at joints (4''-6'' is better), and always make sure feltwork leads down the roof (in other words, as you say, the low felt goes underneath the higher).

Avoid tacking the felt, use the torch on as intended for this you'll require a hand held bunsen or calor gas 'clickie'.

Thats about it really... if done correctly, modern felting can last up to 30 years (with regular maintenance).

PS - All the above suggestions i would put in the 'home bodging' catagory.

Aquaseal - Cheap and tacky (good cheap alternative to flexacryl (lead sealant))

Bitumin on joints - lasts about 6 months before cracking and flaking.

Mike Hunts 'cheap felt' - not worth the money spend on it.

Cheap felt is exactly what it says... CHEAP... and tell me something cheap that lasts?

1

The roofing felt does break down with age (it comes to us all in the end!) - and rain can get through the holes made by the roofing nails after a time. Sometimes the small cracks are not easy to see and to find and seal each one is usually a waste of time - I recently replaced the felt on my shed/workshop ( it measures 12' x 10' so it is not small) using 2 rolls of the gritted stuff from Homebase and have a 6" overlap on each strip. I ran a bead of black sealant along the overlapping edge of each strip and a blob over each nail just to make sure - took me an afternoon and I am no spring chicken either.

Funny! 10!

Look in B&Q or Homebase roof felt is very cheap

Seal the joints with bitchimun

coat the felt with aquaseal (liquid) it will seal any leaks