The roof can be likened to an umbrella that protects you from the sun, rain, or snow. That is, a roof covers the house and prevents the rain and snow from falling into the house. It also acts as a cover and shades the house from the hot sun. You can see how important it is for a house or building to have a roof. Without a roof, there will be lots of problems for the building occupants. While it is important to have a roof, it’s more important to choose the right roof for your building, says coastside roofing.
According to Coastside Roofing, choosing the right roof will prevent leakage in the future. Coastside Roofing is a firm with professionals that are skilled in providing excellent roofing services to their clients. They have been operating for more than 20 years in Australia and their clients are always satisfied with their services.
What Is A Roof?
From a designer’s point of view, a roof is a sheet of material that covers the entire area of a building. It gives a building a unique look and prevents flying animals from dropping in from the sky. Roofs or roofing sheets are made from different materials like terracotta, zinc, steel, and many more.
The Best Roof Materials
Your choice will depend on your financial status, building style, weather conditions, and functionality.
Coastside Roofing brings you the best roofing materials in Australia to choose from:
Roofs Made of Steel
Many Australian homes have vernacular architectures with roofs made from steel. Australian homeowners prefer steel roofs for several reasons. The roofs look good with any building style, are extra strong, rugged, and do not combust. In addition, they can hold up in any climate, no matter how harsh it is. Furthermore, the roofs can stay strong for more than 30 years. While the finish coating can stay for like 20 years in extreme heat before it flakes.
How do you maintain the roof?
Maintain your roof often to make it last longer. Roofs regularly get washed by the rain in the rainy season. However, there’ll still be some parts that don’t get washed, so you should hose those parts with water yourself. You can douse them with water once in six months, twice a year.
Meanwhile, if you want to conserve energy, choose roofs with light colours instead of black roofs. Black-coloured roofs tend to absorb heat and make the building hot. Once the roof has absorbed heat, it will spread the hotness to all the rooms in the building. However, light-colored roofs reflect instead. Choose light-colored roofs that are made to specially reflect the heat from the sun. Such roofs tend to keep the building cool, which means that your AC won’t overwork in summer.
One benefit of purchasing steel roofs is their easy and quick installation method. Visit your local council to check if there are any installation regulations for roofs in your area.
Roofs Made With Concrete Tiles and Terracotta
It’s easy and cheap to maintain concrete tile materials. This is also the same for tiled roofs. They last long and have high insulation. Concrete-tiled roofs can spend up to twenty years before they wear off, whereas, terracotta roofs last for fifty years.
Terracotta-tiled roofs are produced from natural clay fired in kilns with glazes. This process locks their colour inside, which is why such roofs are slow to age.
On the other hand, concrete-tiled roofs are produced from a mixture of cement and sand. During the process, colour coated with pigments is put on the roofs to make the roofs last long. Unlike terracotta, concrete doesn’t have a glaze on them and ultraviolet lights and pollutants can gradually reduce its shine. To bring back the shine of a roof, you should spray enamel paint on the roof.
To maintain roofs with tiles, hire a professional to do an annual thorough cleaning of the roof. Use sealants on discoloured roofs and insulate with foils in-between the tiles and the rafters. Insulating the roof will conserve energy and reduce the sun’s hot rays.
Tiled roofs take between 24 and 48 hours to install, which is even faster than a steel roof installation.
Roofs Made of Copper and Zinc Claddings
These types of roofing sheets are used on buildings that need two or more roofs. This is why some Australian homeowners go for special metals for this purpose.
Zinc and copper materials are stronger than others. After many years of use, they don’t wear off as much as other materials.
To maintain them, just hose them with water often.
The only drawback is the installation time and process because it takes many weeks to fix zinc or copper roofs. The reason may be the need to add extra materials and use intricate installation methods that take time. Only a highly skilled and patient professional can install zinc or copper roofs. Otherwise, the roof would be less durable and get damaged easily.
Roofs Made of Synthetic Slates and Bluestones
Roofs made from these materials are aesthetically pleasing and go well with classic building styles. They are cheaper than other roofing materials and easy to install. Even though they are easy to install, the professional must take his time to do the installation. Plastic slates look natural on a roof.
Conclusion
Coastside Roofing realizes that some roofing professionals don’t take the time to patiently install roofing sheets. They hurriedly install them and make the mistake of fixing a roof in the wrong place. Some even use roofing materials that are incompatible with the climatic conditions of that area.
The firm advises roofing professionals not to rush their jobs. Additionally, they should take time to assess the environment before installing the roofs.
