# Forum Home Renovation Roofing  Roof tile batten size

## bigben

Hello, 
I'm placing an order with my local Timber Yard for materials needed for an upcoming addition to our house in Melbourne. It will have a terracotta tile roof over trusses with 600mm centres. The standard refers me to Table 32 - attached.  
I have a batten spacing of 330mm and span of 600mm so I am able to use 32x44mm battens as far as I can tell. 
Our house had another renovation done at the rear 5 years ago and the battens used there are 25x50mm hardwood.  
I asked my local timber yard to supply 32x44 hardwood but they don't stock it and can't get it. I asked about 25x50 hardwood but they don't have that either. They suggested '70 x 35 Pine Merch'. This seems excessively large for roof battens - I'd much prefer the smaller size but this is the smallest they have. This timber yard is the biggest in the area and is the preferred supplier to tradesmen. I checked with Bunnings and they don't have these smaller sizes either. I'm a bit confused. 
So I guess my question is, what size/type of timber should I use for roof battens?  
Thanks, Ben

----------


## CraigandKate

70x35 merch is the rubbish grade and not that much cheaper than MGP so I never bother with it. 
I think this is what you are after? 34x46 so pretty close anyway..  Hardwood FJ 46x34 Roof Batten Handrail Balustrades Pickets Screen Feature Wall in VIC | eBay

----------


## sol381

Most roof tilers will use 50 x 25 hardwood.. if you are doing an extension you will want to use the same size timbers..not much of a timber yard if they dont have 25x50..have you got a quote form a roof tiler.. might be easier and not that expensive for them to do it..not the easiest job in the world..

----------


## bigben

Thanks, yeah I find it strange that they don't supply that size but neither do Bunnings, which makes me think I'm ordering the wrong thing. This timber yard is enormous and really just deals with tradies. Only reason they will deal with me as an OB is that a friend of our family owns the place. 
Was going to do the roof myself but have decided to get a roofing company to do it now. I was just going to do the battens and leave them to do the tiles, capping, pointing etc. I'll have a chat to them and we'll go from there, cheers.

----------


## phild01

I would let the roofer do it all, they would probably prefer doing the layout anyway.

----------


## sol381

indeed.. they have a team of guys who put them up in no time.. would take you a week by yourself.. Also unless you do it exactly the way they want it you could be wasting your time.. doing hips and valleys isnt easy  either.. doubt youll  find a roofer who will let you do it anyway..let them do it all..

----------


## jimfish

Generally roof battens are 2x1 green hardwood. The reason you won't find it at Bunnings is they only stock dressed hardwood which would be 42x19. Any decent timber yard shoul have or be able to get green hardwood  
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

----------


## Bloss

If it were my roof I would not allow use green hardwood or softwood at the minimum spans as they will distort under the load of the tiles and will look very ordinary. The attached table shows common choices in various states. Roofing looks easy, but isn't - you'll save money and get a better faster job by getting tilers in to do the job for you as others have said.

----------

