Decra Elegance

Decra's Training Officer Peter Gibson guides you through the installation process for the Decra Elegance Tile

Part 1 - Setting out the roof correctly

1. Safety
These instructions are illustrative only. For the sake of clarity, access equipment, which should always be erected in accordance with safety regulations, has been omitted, as have safety helmets, roofing felt and sarking boards.

In common with traditional roof slates and other smooth surfaced roofing products, care should be taken when walking on Decra Elegance tiles particularly in wet, frosty or icy conditions.
In these conditions properly designed roof ladders or crawling boards are an advisable safety aid.

2. You Need

Pencil.
Chino graph penn (i.e wax crayon).
Tape measure or ruler.
Tin snips.
Decra hand nails, Decra Power Nails* or Decra Screws.

You must only use fixing nails and screws supplied by Decra, OTHERWISE the Decra guarantee is invalidated.

Decra roofing felt or breather membranes.
Soft soled safety shoes.
Safety helmet.

*Decra Power nails are designed for use with a Paslode IM350 frame nailer gun.

3. You Also Need
To cut the tiles and accessories you need;
Decra Tile Guillotine or alternatively a reciprocating saw or jigsaw (fitted with an appropriate Decra Cutting Blade).

DO NOT USE angle grinders or disk cutting equipment.

To form edge details to the perimeters of the roof you need.

Decra Tile Bender.
Decra Tile Bender Attachment (for bending the full length of a tile).

IMPORTANT - Operatives are reminded to take all due care when handling sharp edges and using tools.

4. Setting Out The Fascia Board At Eaves
The positioning of the fascia board at the eaves is crucial to the success of the installation.
The fascia board must be set at the right height, set too low the tiles will dive, set too high the tiles will kick up at the wrong angle. The top edge of the fascia board should be set at the same height as the tile battens.
However if you are installing fascia mounted eave ventilators or Decra Eaves Guard the fascia board may need to be set lower (refer to the instructions supplied in the Decra Ventilation pack & Decra Eaves Guard pack).

Unventilated Ventilated

5. Battening
The most crucial factor in laying tiles is the accurate setting out of the tile battens, if you are not accurate then the tiles won’t fit together properly.
Time spent taking extra care when battening is time saved when tiling.

Batten Sizes
Rafter Centres	Batten Size (recommended)
450mm	38mm x 25mm
600mm	50mm x 25mm
900mm	50mm x 50mm
1200mm	50mm x 50mm

6. Setting Out The Battens At Eaves
The positioning of the first batten at the eaves is crucial to the success of the installation.

* The first tile batten should be placed in a position to suit the roof pitch and/or type of gutter, typically this is 330mm from the front edge of the fascia board to the front edge of the first tile batten.
However if you are installing fascia mounted eave ventilators refer to the instruction supplied in the Decra Ventilation pack.

7. Battening The Roof
Then fix the other battens working from the bottom of the rafter, at 370mm spacings from front lower face of batten to front lower face of batten.
Care should be taken to be accurate when installing the battens. Time spent taking extra care when battening is time saved when tiling.

8. Decra Eaves Guards
Decra Eaves Guard is an eave protection system which is installed underneath the roofing underlay providing support for the underlay at eaves.

The installation procedure for the Decra Eaves Guard varies according to roof pitch and rafter spacing.
If you are installing the Decra Eaves Guard refer to the instruction supplied in Decra Eaves Guard pack.

9. Setting Out Gables

Fix the bargeboard level with the bottom edge of the tile battens.

Underlay should over sail the edge of bargeboard by 25mm. Turn edge of underlay down the outer face of the barge board and tack into place.
The cut ends of the tile battens must be in line with the outer edge of the bargeboard.
Install 50mm x 25mm treated gable runner batten on top of the tile battens (outer edge of gable runner batten to be inline with outer face of bargeboard).