Rubber Roofing

I admit that

rubber is my favourite roofing material.

Why? Why not! It´s flexible. It´s not conductive. It´s light-weight and soft. It never lets water through... So why not to make it the roofing material?

Recycled roofing material

Usually, rubber for rubber roofing comes from the recycled rubber (a commendable approach) like the old tires, for example. In the rubber mill, the old tire is chipped, small rubber pieces are gathered and mixed with various chemicals to produce the RRPV (Recycled Rubber Polyurethane Elastomer) or the EPDM (Ethylene Propylene Diene Monomer).

window"> M-D Building Products All-Climate Edam Weatherstrip K Strip, 17 Feet, White #02618 Price: $3.88

AM O-ring - ® Amway Compatible Fit O-ring Am101, E84, E-85, E-9225, E-9395. 5" outer diameter. Remember to order Dow 111 o-ring silicone sealant to help prevent leaks. NSF and FDA approved EPDM O-ring. Price: $9.89

Unless you are a professional chemist, there´s no reason to talk about the exact components and chemical processes used (some of them are proprietary as well). The producers do often add pulverized stone, limestone or slate to the compound to achieve the ultra violet (UV) filtering ability of the rubber roofing, or to improve it´s durability or look. What´s more important is that - at the end of the day - you´ve got the material with very interesting features (waterproof, light-weight, cheap, long-lasting) that can be injected into forms and molded to the required shape (you said you wanted the rubber slate shingles, or was that the rubber cedar shingles? Even rubber natural stone shingles is no problem for us, Sir!). There´s a great variety of these composite roofing shingles available on the market. Various shapes, dimensions, various composition. Let your roofing material dealer answer all you questions, anyway, I am sure you are doing the right thing when considering the rubber-plastic roofing.

EPDM 31" Rubber Bungee Cord Price: $1.17

M-D Building Products All-Climate EPDM Weatherstrip D Strip, 17 Feet, Brown #63602 Price: $5.81

Advantages and disadvantages of rubber roofing

Advantages of rubber composite roofing materials: - durability 40+ years; - 100% waterproof as it is the micro-porous material; - fire-proofness; - single ply only necessary; - resistant against UV (ultraviolet radiation), ozone, aggressive gases, snow and ice; - flexible at -20?C (caution! plastic and rubber materials get very fragile with low temperatures. You should rather use the ice blocks for your roofing, Mr. Santa); Disadvantages of rubber composite roofing materials: - cannot be used at very (I mean very, very, very) low temperatures; - frankly... lots of chemicals are used to produce the rubber polymer shingles. In my humble opinion, we neeed couple of years to find out whether some of them are not dangerous (do you remember asbesthos? the fire-proof material of the future (in 50´s, of course)?)...

41" EPDM Heavy Duty Rubber Tie Down Price: $1.71

M-D Building Products All-Climate EPDM Weatherstrip, All Strip for extra large gaps, 10 Feet, Brown #63644 Price: $4