This article discusses the different types or roofing available on the materials market and discusses the benefits of each type of material in modern applications.
Roof Tiling Materials
Tiles are man made materials, which are made from hard wearing materials such as clay, ceramic materials and sometimes they can even be made out of glass!
This said, by far the most common material used to make roofing tiles is clay. Invariably tiles made this way out of clay have to be treated with a weather resistant glazing coat.
People have been using tiles to build their roofs for hundreds of years and over this time people have designed many different shapes and sizes of tiles. Flat tiles for example are just about the most basic type of roof tile.
They are more often than not flat and rectangular in shape which makes them ideal for layering on a roof. Flat roofing tiles are very, very common in applications and the methods used for creating these types of roofs have not changed a great deal since the 1970′s!
Other types of tiles are roman tiles and single lap tiles. Roman tiles have a curve at one edge and another at the other edge; this allows them to interlock for additional strength when they are laid on a roof. Single lap tiles are shaped like the letter s and when they are laid they give a very distinct pattern.
Slate Roofing Materials
Slate roofs are done with roofing tiles made from slate which is an ancient sedimentary rock made up mainly from of clay and other volcanic materials, and compounded in the earth by pressure and heat.
Slate is a very common roofing material because it is very strong and also waterproof. It is very popular because it can be easily shaped into the rectangles that we see on the roofs of today.
During the manufacture of roofing slates, big pieces of slate rock are broken into small sheets quite easily. Again this makes slate an ideal material for roofing.
Slate can last a very long time because slate is a very hardwearing material the disadvantage of slate as a roofing material is that it is very expensive to buy and replace.
In some areas roofs have to be kept maintained with specific types of slate in order to satisfy planning laws and keep the architectural character of buildings uniform in certain areas. Finding specific types of slate in such cases can be very difficult and there are few roofing contractors which undertake this kind of work.
Felt Materials
Contractors use strong, polyurethane type materials to form felt roofs. A felt roof is applied to a base board which is painted with a preservative coating to make it last longer. Once the base has been prepared the roofing felt is fixed in place using suitable galvanised nails.
Felt roofing applications are usually for flat roofs such as those normally seen on garages and garden sheds. The obvious advantage of using felt as a roofing material on flat roofs is that it is very inexpensive and therefore commonly used as a budget roofing solution on outbuildings.
