How To Install Redland Rapid Eaves Ventilation

Redland - Rapid Eaves Ventilation System

I’m Mat Woodyatt, technical training manager for Redland, and I’m here today at JJ Roofing Supplies training centre in Cricklewood. We’re going to install a full roofing system here today, starting off with low level ventilation, with our rapid ventilation system. We’ll install battens, underlay, a verge system, a ridge system, and of course, the Redland 49 tile.

Two Part System - Roll and Tray

So installing the Redland Rapid Eaves Vent. It’s a two-part system. The first part is an 800mm roll, which will go from rafter to rafter across the roof space, tapped into each rafter as we go across, and then over that, along the fascia board, we’ll be installing a ventilated eaves support tray to hold on the underlay and keep the underlay out of the cavity beneath. There’s also a grille underneath that will let the air flow up and into the ventilation system. It’s an interlocking tray, so you haven’t got to worry about the laps on the side, but we will need to cut a piece at the end of the roof.

Installing The Rafter Roll

So we’re going to install the rafter roll. I’ll just pass you the other end. I’m going to take it out, from rafter to rafter, all the way across the roof. Get it positioned in behind the fascia board there. Just get some felt tacks and tack it in. We don’t need too many fixings, because our battens and underlay are going to go on top of this. So really, it’s just holding it in place while we install the rest of the roofing system – not pulling it too tight – you want to keep a nice corrugated shape to the plastic. Just a few tacks here. We’ll just pop a few fixings into the bottom as well, to hold it in place. So we’re just going to snip off the end of the roll here now and get to the last rafter, make a nice line with the roof, and that’s our roll installed. And so we have the Rapid Roll completely installed and next we move to the tray.

Installing The Support Tray

So next, we’re going to install the underlay support tray. It’s a vented system. You can see the grille underneath there, which allows the air to flow into the roof. We place the lugs here, above the fascia board, and it sits flush with the end of the fascia. So we’ll position it in place, and then we can nail through the top of the tray, into the fascia beneath. So making sure the lugs stay firmly above the fascia board, we’ll fix the nails in all the way across, to the end of the piece.

So the trays are interlocking, which means you don’t have to worry about sidelaps. They fit in nicely with each other like so. So you will have some excess material at the end of the roof, which means you’ll need to snip that away. It cuts nice and easy with a pair of snips. Try and get yourself a nice line down, to sit flush with the end of the roof. So now we’ve trimmed the piece off, you can interlock it and hammer in the final fixings to the fascia board. Again, we’re installing the lugs directly over the fascia. It’s important these pieces are securely fixed, because this is our entry into the roof, and you will be stepping on this.

Mat's Top Tips

So we’ve installed our Rapid Ease ventilation system. We have the roll and the tray. Some points to consider when installing this system: ensure that the lugs are firmly over the top of the fascia board, to make sure you’ve got a firm fix on the bottom of the roof. And remember, this is the first place you’ll be stepping when you enter the roof space. Also, make sure when we install the roll that it’s not too tight – also not too loose – you don’t want it hanging into the rafters – we’ve got open rafters here. But you don’t want it too tight, because otherwise you’ll lose that corrugated effect and reduce the ventilation performance of the roll.

The roll itself is 800 mm. The reason for that is to bring it over and above any insulation that’s installed in the loft. When installing this kind of system, always check that the insulation is below the level of the roll. If the insulation comes out above, it will effectively block the ventilation into the loft area and cause condensation in the roof space. With some systems, some tiles, we may need to install a bird comb above the tray system. This is placed above and nailed in as normal.