"Did you Know?" The Winchester Cut

What is a Winchester cut?

A Winchester cut is a traditional finish for vertical tiling against a verge. Its noticeable features are continuous lines along each tile course ending in a diamond cut gable tile at its apex. The result gives a great aesthetic look to vertically finished plain tiles.

This technique avoids the use of small triangular pieces of tile and ensures the secure fixing of the last tile against the main roof verge, by the use of a tile-and-a-half at the end of each course.

‘Winchester’ cutting is best suited for gable ends where the roof pitch is 40° or more. For lower pitches, the tiling gauge may need to be reduced to 100mm or 90mm in order to avoid too great a splayed cut. It is likely that two tile-and-a-half tiles adjacent to one another will be needed to overcome this.

How its done.

1. Leave battening short of rake of verge. This allows fixing of a batten parallel to, but below rake line. The top face of this batten must be flush with the tiling battens so that tiles do not tilt up (Fig 1).
2. Cut tile-and-a-half tiles to angle of rake for each vertical course, keeping cut edge parallel to and below rake (Fig 2).
3. Once tile-and-a-half tiles are positioned, cut adjacent tile to fit. All tile-and-a-half tiles should be twice nailed. This may mean drilling an extra hole after cutting to shape.
4. At apex of gable, use a tile-and-a-half tile turned through 45° and cut to shape to finish (Fig 3).

For more guides and fixing manuals check out the new Marley Eternit Sitework Guide.