Etcetera.

FOE, securing hip, ridge, curb, and apron-flashings in their places, lead tacks should be fixed 2 1/2 in. or 3 in. wide, and of a strength 1 lb. to the superficial foot heavier than the flashing. One end of the tack should be nailed to the wood hip, ridge, or boarding with two stout iron clouts or three strong copper nails; and the other end should be turned round upon the face of the flashing about § in., to well clip it.

2. A tack is rendered much stronger by welting its return edge to the flashing, as shown in section, fig. 30. Where the edge of the tack is not welted it should be notched its thickness into the edge of the flashing, to keep its position better, and also to give a straight edge to the trimming. When the tack is welted, the edge of the welting should be arranged to come exactly in a line with the edge of the flashing, especially when the flashing is much seen, to give a straight line to the edges of the flashing.

3. Tacks to straight-flashings - to gutter-flashing and to the stand-up of flats - may be of the same strength as the flashing. One end, about 1 in. deep, is turned down inside the stand-up of the gutter or flat, and the other end is made to clip round about 3/4 in. upon the flashing, with its corners cut off for the sake of appearance. A tack about every 3 ft. or 3 ft. 6 in. answers very well.

4. Where, for the sake of appearance, it is desirable not to fix a thick tack under a flashing, as in the case of dormer cheeks, etc., and also for extra strength, copper tacks should be used, and their ends welted to the flashing.

5. A secret tack is a piece of lead or copper soldered at one end to the back or under side of a lead apron, dormer cheek, or bay, and nailed or screwed at the other end to the boarding. The tack should be of a size best suited for its work, and it may have to be so soldered that it shall pass through a horizontal joint or a vertical joint of the boarding; or a notch may be made in a board and the end of the tack pushed through, just where it is most wanted, and nailed or screwed on the inner side of the boarding.

6. A torus is chiefly fixed to the sides and ends of a roof-flat to give it an architectural finish; but it is often wrongly covered with lead. In some cases the ends of the lead bays are carried right round the torus and continued upon the slates! In others the apron-flashing is not only made to flash the slates, but is also continued up around the torus. In the former case the rain in time is sure to work its way through some of the many laps and rot the wood; and in the latter case the lead is sure, to crack, and to get much out of shape with the expansion and contraction that will be constantly going on where it is much exposed to the sun.

In either of the foregoing methods it is difficult to fix tacks or means which shall keep the lead tight up against the under side of the torus.

7. The apron curb or lead flashing to the slates, should be fixed first, and this and the lead for the torus can be 1 lb. to the superficial foot lighter than the flats, supposing the latter to be 7 lb. lead. The apron-flashing can be fixed in lengths from 7 to 10 feet, and the ends bossed to form the undercloaks and overcloaks to the hips, where the latter intersect with the curb. The apron should be nailed to the wood curb at its upper edge, and the lower edge, the lay-down upon the slates, should be held in position by lead tacks.

8. Where a torus is of great length it must be covered in pieces 8 or 10 feet long. The lower part of the back of the torus must be rebated to allow for the thickness of the stand-up of the apron (unless that is carried right up to the surface of the wood-flat), and for the thickness of the turn-round of the covering to the torus.

Fig. 30. - Lead Flashing to Torus.

The lead should be nailed to the lower part of the back side of the wood torus, and turned round to the front; the torus should then be fixed in its proper place and well nailed. The lead should then be tightly pulled round over the torus and dressed on to the edge of the wood-flat, into which it should be rebated and nailed, as shown in section, fig. 30.

9. The ends of the lead bays of the flat should be continued round to a little below the middle of the torus. For the sake of appearances, the end of the rolls should be spill-topped, i.e., tapered down, but not to too fine a point, and the points should terminate just where the rounded part of the torus begins. Where seam-rolls are formed, the rolls may be continued round the torus to the edge of the bays.

10. Where there are no roof-runs, no roof-steps, or roof-ladders, lead valleys form a fair means for climbing from one roof to another.

11. The tilting-fillet or wood-springing is generally fixed about 3 in. up from each side of the wood valley; and the lead is laid in lengths from 7 to 10 ft., and carried up over the tilting edges to stand from 4 to 6 in. under the slates, according to circumstances.

12. When a roof of high pitch meets a roof of low pitch, the wood tilting-piece on the side of the valley of the latter roof should be a little deeper than ordinarily, deeper than if both roofs were of one pitch; and the edge of the valley gutter on the side of the lower roof should be turned round, as a further protection, and welted.

13. To the roofs of country mansions, where there is a good bit of traffic over them in repairing chimneys, slates, and parapets, and in clearing away the scattered leaves of autumn and the heavy snows of winter, it is better that the valley gutters should have bottoms to them, 6 or 7 in. wide. The laps in either case should not be less than 6 in.

14. A single welt is simply the edge of the lead turned round an inch or less, or 1 1/4 in. or 1 1/2 in. wide, to stiffen the edge of the lead, and to cover over the heads of the nails. The nailing behind the welt should be with copper nails, from 1 in. to 2 or even 3 in. apart, according to circumstances.

15. Flashings or aprons for covering vertical faces, when more than 9 or 12 in. deep, should have their edges double-welted, i.e., seam-welted.

When deep-flushings are lapped, the woodwork near and about the laps, at the back of the flashing, will be subject to the decaying influences of dampness from great rains, and moisture from an almost daily evaporation of the condensation of the atmosphere between the two faces of the lead.

16. To form a double-welt (fig. 31) of long length, turn the edge of the un-dercloak back an inch, to stand out at right angles with the face of the lead. Cut or plane off the edge with a lead-plane, to make it an equal width throughout its whole length. Turn up the edge of the overcloak nearly double the width of the undercloak, and fix the piece of lead for the faces of the two stand-ups to stand close together, and parallel to each other. It is of great importance to leave a space of not less than about 3/16 in. between the edge of the stand-up of the undercloak and the place of the folding of the over-cloak, or in turning and flattening down the welt the angle of the bay of the latter will be drawn away from the boarding, and to get it back again the lead would be much thinned, perhaps split.

It will be much easier, and the edge will be straighter, if, with a straight-edge held against the back of the stand-up, a shaving of lead be taken off with a shave-hook at the place of the folding.

Fig. 31. - Section of a Double-Welt.

In turning the edge of the overcloak over upon the stand-up or stand-out of the undercloak, do not dress the welt too tightly at the angle of the folding, as room must be left for the undercloak to work up into it during the turning of the welt, and in flattening it down, or back, upon the face of the bay.

17. To secure the welt - the bay - to the face of the woodwork do not drive in any nails, but fix secret copper tacks, as shown in section, fig. 31, and more fully described in Chap. XII., Art. 15.

18. Before leaving the subject of lead laying it may be well to say a word on snow-boards, though that is a work not quite within the plumber's province. The great object of snow-boards in gutters and flats is to provide a way of escape for melted snow. This is not always present to the mind of the carpenter, and his narrow-boards are often laid down in a way to frustrate the object for which they are fixed.

When the open spaces in the boarding run athwart the fall of the flat or gutter, the snow which falls between the boards readily forms itself into a number, of ridges or obstructions in the way of the current; and a gutter in this way may be turned into a series of little snow-water ponds, some of which, on a sunny day, may become deep enough to overflow the sides of the gutter, or the drip, and run through into the roof, and cause some damage.

Where the boards are laid down the way of the current in a gutter or flat, with supports which have proper watercourses, the snow which falls through between the boards will leave water-channels for any melted snow to run freely away.