In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
lead flashings
Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 05/30/2006 - 12:44In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
friend of mine had the same problem here near Cingoli, the builders merchants wanted to sell him cuts off the roll which would mean 6 or 7 joints in the flashing-his language skills are pretty minimal so not sure why he didnt buy the roll from the supplier, I will try to get more info from him and let you know. Not keen on cement on its own for flashing as you know its always moving. Most of my flashing on the house here in Marche is copper, not the same though is it, lead worked properly looks great. When I come over for good next year I am going to bring a few rolls of lead, always handy. Good luck.
If you look in the local yellow pages - though it MUST be the "lavoro" version, not the "casa" version, you should find some entries for Metalli e Leghe. If you want to check availability [url]www.mericat.it[/url] will supply it, though I don't know if they have prices on the site.
I'm lucky enough to have a Mericat close at hand (I think there are about four in the whole of Italy) and you go in there say I want some 16mm hex bar: they yawn and say - yeah - do you want this in stainless, bronze, brass, titanium, steel, aluminium...........never ever had a metal merchant like that in the UK!!
But - lead on the roll: I presume you are thinking about using it for roof flashings, or in other places much in the same way as it would be used in the UK. I have never seen it used here in Italy - I cannot see any good technical reason why not (although it does expand and contract with temperature differences more than many metals) - I think it is just that driving rain is very rare in Italy, and usually a mortar flashing will suffice - and also that if once every couple of years a bit of damp does get in it isn't a wood rotting disaster as it can be in the UK. As well as straighforward mortar, you often see the thick roofing felt used in place of lead - but lead - very rare, probably only on the very top class jobs! Zinc coated steel (ugh) is also used where in the UK lead would be used.
Good luck in your hunt for lead - won't be easy. If you fail, ask your builders' merchant for "high tech" replacements, some manufacturer almost certainly does a metal faced roofing felt for where the appearance is important (Nuralite comes to mind as a trade name, but that was UK).