When homeowners in Brentry are quoted for a re-roof, they sometimes ask why the battens need replacing at all if the roof is only being retiled. It is a fair question, since battens are hidden away out of sight and easy to overlook when thinking about where the budget is going, but there are practical reasons why reusing old battens is rarely the right call once a roof is being stripped back that far.
Battens are the timber laths that every tile or slate is fixed to, and they take on a surprising amount of strain over the years without anyone giving them much thought. They are exposed to damp from condensation and any water that gets past the tiles above, they flex slightly with every gust of wind that loads the roof, and they hold thousands of individual nail or screw fixings across an average roof. By the time a roof is old enough to need full retiling, the battens have usually been through decades of this quiet wear, even if they look sound at a casual glance.
Once tiles are stripped off an older Brentry roof, it is common to find battens that are split, warped, or softened by rot in places that were never visible while the tiles were sitting in place above them. Reusing timber like this and simply refixing new tiles to it would undermine the whole point of the re-roof, since the new covering would only ever be as secure as the timber holding it, and problems could resurface within just a few years rather than lasting for the decades a new roof should provide.
Fitting new battens as standard also means the new fixings can be positioned correctly and driven properly into sound, solid timber, rather than working around old nail holes or weakened, spongy sections left over from the previous roof. It is a relatively small part of the overall cost of a re-roof, but it has a disproportionate effect on how securely the new tiles perform once the scaffolding comes down and the roof is left to face the weather on its own, particularly through a full Bristol winter of driving rain and gusting wind.
There is also a building regulations and warranty angle to consider. Many roofing guarantees and industry standards expect new battens as part of a full re-roof, since insurers and manufacturers recognise that old timber is one of the more common hidden causes of premature roof failure. Skipping this step to save a modest amount of money can end up undermining the value of the guarantee attached to the rest of the work.
It is generally accepted good practice among reputable roofers, including Brunel Roofing Bristol, to install new battens as part of any full re-roof, precisely so the new covering has a sound, reliable base to sit on rather than being fixed onto timber that has already done its job and is quietly nearing the end of its own working life.
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