Pitched Roof - Tiling and Bracing Issues

[Rastus]

Hello,

I have just finished extending the roof on my 1940's fibro home. I decided
to pitch the roof rather than use trusses. This was more for the
woodworking exercise than any real advantages. I have a couple of
questions I need answering if anyone can help.

1) The new part of the roof has a hip at one end. On the existing roof no
steel bracing was used. I assumes that a hip roof braces itself. Is this so
or should I use additional steel bracing?

2) I am trying to reuse old terracotta tiles (Turton - Maitland Tiles). It
appears these were attached using thin copper wire. Is it necessary to
use copper wire to reattach or can I successfully use galvanised wire? If
not, does anyone know where I would buy appropraite copper wire for the
job and what I should ask for?

Kind Regards
Rastus

[Termite]

You may find that the copper coated aluminium wire used for Bonsai may be cheaper to use. Or better still find someone that does Aluminium Mig welding and get them to reel off a bit of wire for you.

[ThePope]

1) The new part of the roof has a hip at one end. On the existing roof no
steel bracing was used. I assumes that a hip roof braces itself. Is this so
or should I use additional steel bracing?

In general on a traditional hipped roof there's no need for aditional bracing, if you have a gable end anywhere then yes you'd add bracing.

Give Boral a call about the wire, I'm not even sure if it's used these days.

[John99]

Hello Rastus

I did a similar thing but I did use trusses for the extension and I got some 50 year old terra cotta tiles that were the same brand and style to what was on the house, so that they would match before I put them up we cleaned all 1500 of them.

They were the type that were tied on with wire and me being a auto sparky I got an old generator pulled out the field coils and hey presto miles of copper wire ! all at the right price to !

Cheers