Imitation Roofing - Slate And Wood Made Of Rubber
Everyone would like to have nice natural roof. And everyone wants to pay as little as possible for it.
In order to satisfy the market which requires naturally looking roofing materials (with the lowest possible price) the roofing manufacturers try to replicate the mother nature. They take the cheap, shapeable synthetic materials and change them into well looking cedar or slate imitations.
Nowadays, there is couple of materials used to provide the slate or cedar-like look of the roofing shingles.
The most often used are as follows:
- fake slate/wood shingles made of rubber;
- fake slate/wood shingles made of PVC;
- fake slate/wood shingles made of composite materials (combination of natural slate powder and plastic).
Slate and wood made of recycled rubber
The rubber fake slate shingles are produced from material consisting of polyethylene (PE) and rubber powder (from ground old rubber tires).
The above material in a liquid form is injected under pressure to various moulds to achieve the shingle of desired shape.
This simulated slate roofing material is able to last temperatures between -60 and +110 Celsius degrees (-76 and +230 Fahrenheits) and compared to natural slate or cedar wood it weighs much less (10kgs/square meter or 2000 pounds per square).
The old tires smell. Do the imitation wood/slate shingles made from the recycled tire rubber smell as well?
The old tires smell, it is a matter of fact, therefore the most frequent question about the simulated slate/wood shingles made of rubber is whether such shingles do not stink as well.
Almost all
rubber shingles do smell. Nevertheless, after quite short time the smell tends to disappear and the rubber (faux slate or cedar) shingles do not stink anymore.
It is the same situation as if you buy new tires. They smell but after using them couple of days the smell disappears, you can do a little test on the nearest parking lot.
Fireproofness of the faux slate shingles made of rubber
Rubber shingles are not fireproof. Actually, every roofing material has its advantages and disadvantages and the imflammability of rubber is one of the disadvantages of the rubber-based simulated slate/wood.
But before anyone starts to panic and execrate this great roofing material, you have to know that 95% of all household fires comes from the inside of the house and if the roof starts to burn after the whole house is on fire, almost all roofing materials will burn up (huge fires produce temperateures high enough to dissolve thick steel sheets).
So, my suggestion is to use the faux slate or wood rubber shingles, but to improve their fire resistance, the shingles should be treated with the fireproof coating.
If - despite the above fire resistant coating - your house sets on fire, do not forget to tell the firemen you have the rubber roof, they will use special foam to extinguish the fire.
Another advantages and disadvantages of the rubber shingles imitating slate or wood
The rubber slate-like/wood-like shingles inherit the natural flexibility of rubber, therefore the roofers should have "the light hand" when
nailing the shingles. If the nail is hit too strong, the neil head will deform the surface of the rubber shingle or its position within the shingle line.
Being flexible, the fake slate rubber shingles are also little more demanding on keeping the dilatation space between the shingles.
Almost all roofing materials loose their color being exposed to ultraviolet radiation for longer time. Also simulated slate shingles made of rubber suffer from this problem.
To reach the highest possible color-stability, you should prefer shingles that are not surface-painted but in which the pigments are mixed in the rubber mass directly during the manufacturing process.
On the other hand, rubber is almost indestructible material and so are the shingles made of rubber. The flexibility of these shingles causes that the replacement of one damaged shingle is an easy job and also inexperienced DIYers can do it without spoiling the whole roof.
