Alternative roofing

donalh087 wrote: »

has anyone used industrial/agricultural cladding on a domestic roof? Finalising a design at the moment and I am very taken by this house (below). I love how light the roof looks and I think it would look great in rural Ireland. Also there is no guttering - anyone tried that?

I did a round half barrel roof sheeted with corrugated metal painted with red oxide. It was really only for show, we got timber round roof trusses manufactured we sheeted them and they were covered in torch on felt, then purlin were screwed to the roof and the cladding foxed over it. It looked well afterwards but I would only use it as a feature not a roof. You need a real roof underneath and fit this afterwards for show. If you used it as the roof itself you'd have to deal with condensation on the sheets and the like. Also this roof was seriously expensive!!

..cant see the pic in your thread..

I have seen corrugated sheet roofing used over straw thatch in old houses, the thatch still pretty much intact and not rotted after eighty years. Contact Tegral in Athy, they may be able to help source the colour sheeting you require, also Kildare county council produced a book on traditional rural buildings which could be worth a look

I am using Euroclad Vieo edge sheeting on my roof. It will be on in a couple of weeks, you are welcome to check it out on site. I can Pm you any information you want on it. Very cost effective!

Galvanized steel obviously has a limited lifespan - think of all those rusty haysheds around the country.
Is aluminium corrugated cladding too expensive to consider ?

recipio wrote: »

Galvanized steel obviously has a limited lifespan - think of all those rusty haysheds around the country.
Is aluminium corrugated cladding too expensive to consider ?

They outlast most people reading this, I wouldn't be too worried about it.

Sorry to go off topic and sound like a know it all but for your own sake watch the scaffolding lad, especially up the gable end. Its fairly scarce like!!!

donalh087 wrote: »

@superdaddy - how is the roof progressing?

Over half the cladding done on the back of the house, north side, will add more photos when done. Really happy with it so far, looks great, I love the gutter and soffit. Barges and flashings yet to go on.

I'm using Vieo edge. Cheaper again. You are welcome to view mine.

smokey-fitz wrote: »

Great job, looks good. How is this roof cost wise as apposed to a standard slate roof? I have an old farm yard stone shed im planning to renovate, starting to get quotes this coming week.

Also what way are you doing insulation? Are you getting insulated cladding or insulating it seperate? Or both?

It's insulated separately. It's called a warm roof. 100mm PIR board on top of the rafter and rock wool or similar between the rafters. 18mm plywood on top of PIR , then a breathable membrane and fix sheeting straight to it.

lownhard wrote: »

Looks fantastic. Great choice. How much per m2 including ridges? What colour have you used? Are you going with flush gables? Is this possible with this type of material?

Sorry about all the Qs

Yes flush gables with a bit of a drip detail. I've used the colour anthracite.

Nkenny123456 wrote: »

Hi
We our designing our new build at the minute and have went with a flat roof. 1 for the design aspect and 2 not to block our neighbours light.
So we won't be changing it but looking 4 experience on flat roof homes. Any advice.
Thanks

Know someone with a flat roof as the main roof on their house and they're finding it a nightmare getting an insurer to provide home insurance, some even decline to quote. Don't know if its something to do with their roof design, or the insurers refusing to insure against certain claims e.g. roof leaks/repairs or just refusing all cover, either way it's something you should look into.

cork2 wrote: »

Provided the builder is well experienced leaks shouldn't be a huge risk. What I would say is that in the last 7 or 8 houses I've priced there has been torch on felt and single ply membranes specified as the finish on the roof. It is just my opinion but I think these finishes are a quick job. If it were my own house I wouldn't consider them, an asphalt flat roof really is the only flat roof. If you do for some reason go for torch on felt, make sure that the installer doesn't use a roll of this felt and a roll of that felt, make sure it is a complete roof system from the one manufacturer and make sure you get a written guarantee from the manufacture at the end, generally at some stage a rep from the company will call during the installation to take a few pictures and provide some level of quality control.

We built a lot of flat roof buildings, in the UK in particular (see pics of but one), and I would have to disagree - even our own office building is flat-roofed, and in a single ply membrane. For clarity, we don't do the water-proofing, only the structure under it.

Bituminous membranes / asphalt I wouldn't put on any roof these days, and have not long ago replaced that with a single ply membrane on my mother-in-laws house - after 2 x claims with insurer for leaks, they simply declined to repair it any more, and we put a new mono-pitch roof on it instead, with a single ply membrane.

Asphalt is not maintenance-free, and that's the issue imho.

Another finish to consider, and which I like, is GRP -Glass Reinforced Plastic.

Whichever you pick, as above, buy a 'system' with a comprehensive guarantee.

As others have pointed out though, insurance on any flat roof building is a major problem here. The rule of thumb is that if the flat area exceeds 15% of the total area, and providing you can even get a quote, then you could be looking at up to a large loading - multiples of a 'standard' house in fact.

The other thing to bear in mind is the definition of a 'flat roof'. You can have a 'flat roof'.....at 30 degree pitch ... so there is a scope to design something that is 'flat' but at a pitch above that which would fall foul of insurers rules. I can't remember for sure, but I think the pitch to stay above is 5 degrees.

cork2 wrote: »

As I say it's only my opinion but I never took to single ply membranes I don't trust them, they are easily broken. Drop a slate on it and see what happens. In Cork in the past twelve months I've come across a major problem with single ply membrane that you wouldn't think of as an issue. In two separate locations where there has been exposed sites, during construction the engineers detail included ballast spread over the membrane to counter act the wind. In my opinion the ballast itself is a puncture risk but apart form that at all the particular issue was dirt and muck building up in the ballast over time and growing weeds. We've all see the miniature forest that can grow in gutters that aren't maintained, but when that happens on a single ply membrane and along come the birds they peck holes in it believe it or not!! One of the biggest shopping centres in Cork has single ply membrane on the roofs and on the parapets and the pigeons are doing wreck!! I agree with you asphalt is NOT maintenance free, but neither is any other flat roof.

Good one about the birds - never knew that !!

There are different types of single ply membrane too - EPDM and PVC being but two, and each have their own pros/cons.

Our office roof in these pics :

Roof problems caused by birds, what next? it reminds me of a case many years ago where glaziers were installing windows in a large development. Every morning when they came in the work done the previous day had been attacked, and had to be re-done. Putty had been removed. It looked like an animal was responsible, so they installed CCTV to try to catch the perpretator.
Turned out to be a putty cat.

pauldavis123 wrote: »

Glass fiber is the only one, think about it, they build boats out of it.

Most products come back to the fitter, fail to correctly ventilate glass fibre and your boat may just hit an ice berg Also Glass fibre needs a parapet with zinc or plaster or cedar or something on it because I could think of nothing worse than looking at glass fibre every morning. Out of general curiosity what kind of guarantees are going with glass fibre roofs anyone know??