Boards in loft and garage roof are falling down….

Strange one. We’ve only had this house for 18 months, but some boards used to line the loft and garage ‘ceiling’ seem to be falling down.

The ones that are doing so seem to warp into a curve first, then drop out.

Should I be concerned?

Either condensation/damp or thermal expansion and they were fitted without a gap. I’d lean towards the first. Is there eaves ventilation? It sometimes gets blocked by poorly fitted insulation.

I’d say that heat escaping up from the house condenses onto the colder boards, causing dampness.

It looks as though a lot of insulation has been added in the year or so before we moved in. I’ll check for ventilation. Are these standard fittings in a house? (Excuse my ignorance.)

Definitely linked to condensation. Check if the eves vent, or vent tile Iif fitted have been blocked.

I have no boards in the roof of my house, you just see the roof felt. When they installed the insulation they should have put vents in the roof.

In the house I had before which was a new build, again it was just felt. I had terrible condensation forming on the felt. Got the builders in who installed venting through the overlaps of the felt. Worked fine.

From your photo’s I can’t see what function the boarding is serving. Is there insulation behind it?

@ wobbliscott- no. There just seems to be a sort of lining material.

Prior to buying our house i had the building inspector from the local council up to look at the boarded out loft.The previous owner had turned it into a bedroom.
He said the boards and insulation should be removed as there were no vents in the roof.
He said not removing them could cause damp and eventually rot the roof spars.
When its windy you can now really feel the draught.

Been there.

Basically warm(er) air condensing on the cold bitumen sheeting behind it then dripping down on to the boards. You only get them popping on one side as the weight of the roof tiles is basically pressing down on the boards at the joints (each board is butt jointed to its neighbour behind the joists)

Very little you can do once they are bent aside from pushing them back up and screwing short pieces of timber strapping on to the side of the Joists. Try taping over any curved horizontal joints to avoid air getting in that way. Its a b1tch of job to get in at where the roof slopes @ the Eaves.

You need to stop the flow of warm / moisture laden air into the loft and increase the ventilation of colder “outside” air into the space. Increasing the number of Soffit vents is a cheap and easy fix. Also double insulate the loft hatch and plug up all sources of heat escape with loft insulation @ pipe cut outs etc. You can buy “Loft Caps” to fit over halogen light fittings if you have any and they in turn can be insulated over. Lastly don’t dry wet clothes (or drape them over warm radiators) in the house.

If you’ve got halogen lights in the bathroom change them for bathroom lamps, which have a rubber sealing ring aound the rim to prevent moist air from going through.

Thanks all.