Check your roofing battens are compliant

TDUK is offering advice on how to ensure the timber battens you stock, sell and use are fit for purpose, after warnings from The National Federation of Roofing Contractors that substandard battens are circulating in the UK. These are ‘marked, coloured and sold as being BS 5534 compliant’, despite being counterfeit.

Roofing battens are the sections of wood fitted between the rafters on any roof. Battens are part of the fundamental structure of the roof, as they secure the roofing felt and help take the loads imposed by the slates or tiles, as well as any extra weight from snow or strong winds.

They are also structurally significant during construction work since roofers often walk, sit or lean on these battens – with serious consequences if the battens fail. That’s why battens are subject to such strict building standards, grading and quality requirements.

What should merchants look for?

British Standards specify that only battens fully graded to BS5534 can be called roofing battens, or used as such. The number of large knots and growth rings, plus the slop of the grain, are strictly controlled. Size also matters: battens must be 38mm x 25mm minimum (50mm x 25mm for slates), and have very strict tolerances (-0/+3mm on the thickness and -3/+3mm on the width).

Recognising a correctly graded, high-quality roofing batten by eye is not easy. That’s why roofing battens must be factory graded and marked with the supplier size, species and BS5534. Documentation must show all this information, as well as indicating the batten has been graded, the country of origin and any preservative used.

If the timber stacked in your yard doesn’t have this information, you cannot sell it for use as a roofing batten, and you must not describe it as such, nor as a tiling batten or slating (other terms used to describe roofing battens). Anything other than a fully graded BS5534 batten is a piece of sawn, treated timber and is not fit for use as a roofing batten.

TDUK has created a Trade Note to offer guidance on how merchants can protect themselves against any potentially fraudulent or substandard battens, which can be viewed on our website at www.timberdevelopment.uk