Choosing The Best Roofing Material (based On Your Roof Pitch And Roofing Material Weight)
When choosing the right roofing material for your roof, you must take into consideration two limiting factors: - roof pitch angle; - roofing materials weights.
Roof pitch angle
The basic rules are: (1) the lower the roof pitch is, the lighter materials you shall use and ... (2) for the low slopes you should better use the seamless roofing material plates � e.g. standing seam steel roofs � and for the high slope roofs the shingles are what you are looking for. The
steel roofing materials (zinc coated steel roofing plates or steel prefabricated shingles) can be used for the low roof pitch designs, from the roof slope of 7?. The
advantages of the standing seam steel is that it is light and lets the rain water never through, no matter of the slope angle. The
disadvantages are that you have to take care of it (protective painting) to protect it from corrosion and that it is quite impossible to do it yourself.
Although I am a DYI roofing friend (and I did the standing seam steel roofing on my fatherīs cottage roof myself), I really do recommend you to search for your local standing seam specialized roofer, as it is a nightmare for anyone who has not done that several times before. From the roof pitch of 15? you can use the
fiber cement roofing materials, corrugated fibre cement plates, corrugated steel plate and steel roofing shingles. If you want to use
the concrete roofing shingles or the burnt clay ceramic shingles, your roof has to be of at least 25? (grooved shingles) or, better, 30? (standard shingles). The same pitch angle is the minimum for the other heavy roofing materials like
natural slate roofing or any other stone-based roofing materials. The roofing products of the particular manufacturers do differ very much. To choose the best one, you should address the roofer that has the experience with the your-choice roofing material.
The roofing material weight
Following the basic rules I specified above, the lower the profile of your roof is, the lighter materials you should use. The
concrete shingles or ceramic shingles are not suitable for the low slope roofs. They are too heavy and you risk problems in the future... leaking, breaking the roof, etc... If you have a high pitched roof, it is more convenient to use the
metal/asphalt/clay shingles as they do not require so much effort when re-roofing. Definitely, you should ask you roof architect what is the sustainable load of your
roof trusses. It is really a difference if you have a truss able to bear 100 kg or a ton.
roof pitch
steel roofing pitch
copper roofing pitch
asphalt roofing pitch
