Roofing Experts

Flat roofing is a pretty popular roofing style, but it does have its problems. People have used slanted roofs for thousands of years for a reason; water tends to slide downhill; something that a flat roof just can’t do.

If the roof is perfectly flat, then the layer of water that remains on the roof is unlikely to cause significant damage (although some is still likely), but flat roofs are rarely perfectly flat, and any slight indentation can allow puddles of water to form, which will cause damage far more quickly.

There seems to be no way around this issue, other than to abandon flat roof systems altogether. There is some hope though as roofing technology is developing all of the time, particularly in the areas of waterproofing and durability, and we could potentially see more flat roofing solutions able to tout lifespans equal to that of the more common slanted roofing systems.

Roofs vary in size, height, scaffolding requirements, location, accessibility and most importantly the roofing material. This makes it impossible to accurately give the cost of a new roof. Roofers will not charge the same price as the cost of insurance, advertising and premises among other things differ from one contractor to the other.

Aluminium roofing systems will not cost the same as flat tiles roofing. Below is a rough price estimate of a new roof in the UK.For a start, you need to calculate the area the roof is supposed to cover in square metres. If all you need is a quick estimate of the area, you can measure from the floor of the house but if you need more accurate readings, you need to measure from a ladder. You need to calculate the rear area and the front area, then add a breakages allowance. If, for instance, the total area is 52 square metres, add 3 square metres breakages allowance to get 55 square metres. If 15.7 tiles are required for 1 square metre, then the whole house will need 864 roof tiles.

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A lot of people are attracted to the idea of a green roof due to its appearance. There are a lot of reasons besides this why people might want to have a green roof, such as the benefits to the environment, but ultimately it is because of its appearance.

If these people then go on to have such a roof installed on their home, they will quickly discover that these roofs aren’t very pretty all year round. During spring and summer time, they look pretty good, but during winter and autumn the Sedum browns and starts to look pretty terrible.

Overcoming this issue can be pretty difficult, and ultimately comes down to your selection of plants. The temptation is to use purely wildflowers, but if you add in a mixture of other plants which stay green all year round, your roof will look better all year round too.

When you look at a standard thatch product, you see a number of things which are hard to find in roofing products. For instance, the amazing popularity of thatching, how it can be used very effectively to create a rustic style of home, and how easy to find and source it often is. Unfortunately though, these benefits can be offset by a few important factors which are often ignored by those asking for its installation; it has relatively low life expectancy as it can biodegrade, it is difficult to install, and requires regular maintenance as the thatch can damaged by weather, with reeds taken away by animals and weather.

In order to overcome the negative aspects of thatching while still holding onto many of the most important benefits, one option is to choose a synthetic thatch product. With a synthetic thatch product, you will see that the amount of maintenance required is massively reduced, and, because of how they are made, the installation costs are also considerably more affordable as well. Of course, you’ll also see that the synthetic variety has a far greater lifespan than the natural thatching products.