get conversation moving

aussieroofer

i'm a bit bored boys. lets get some good conversation going here. any roofing problems? any new products? any new systems? whats your favourite type of roof? tiles, slates , shingles.
i like clay tiles. the interlocking ones . slates run a close second, but the clay tiles have more character. tell me what you think. i dont hear people talk much about tiles. is it mainly shingles. ? what about wooden shingles? is there manyb of them around. tell me stuff! get my roofing brain working. i love this trade and am hungry for more knowledge.

Interloc

Mostly shingles where i'm from BC Canada i use Pabco or Certainteed,use to do alot of cedar roofs around here in the 80's not so much now,would love to do real slate and not synthetic kind,but not much of that around here either..

aussieroofer

the synthetic slate got a hold here in ireland too. still manage to get good few natural slate jobs though. working on a roof with brazilian naturals at the moment. with the exception of blue bangor welsh slates (which cost a fortune) they sit the best of all the natural slates. they are fixed with a 4 point hook system. due to the brittleness of the slate they cannot be fixed with a nail or cut with hand cutters but can be cut with the traditional slaters axe. most boys use the grinder though. all in all these brazillian slates look the business. the problem with the man made slates is that they age terribly. they look shiny and new when they go down but the colour fades within a few years and they look artificial even more so at that stage.
i have never done a wooden shingles roof but imagine the principles would be the same as slating but more random. i would like to do one. neither have i done the bitumous type shingles but i like the finished look they achieve. you would go a long way in ireland to find that type of roof. the closest i came was patch job on a bay window on an old house in dublin.

Interloc

That is what i was thinking that slate would not be to much different from cedar,have you installed the DaVincie synthetic slate and if ya did how long ago and how does it look today?...i've been trying to sell a few of those but dont have any older job to compare with...

aussieroofer

i cant say that i have come accross the davinci slate in ireland . we have tegral over here. i think an extension of a crowd called eternit. are davinci a fibre cement slate or the recycled rubber slates? there are so many around today that they are hard to keep track of. the tegral or eternit slates look good going down but age poorly. this might not be a problem for potential customers as it takes some time for this to happen. i just wouldnt put them on my own roof. give me an aged tile or natural slate any day. the problem i see with the man made is the glaze wearing off the slate making them susceptible to moisture.

Interloc

We use an engineered polymer, which is impregnated with fire retardant and state of the art advanced UV stabilizers specifically formulated for the tough conditions tiles are exposed to in all climates throughout the year. DaVinci roof tiles useonly 100% pure virgin resin in order to assure consistency. -Back to top

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We use 100% virgin resin in our roof tiles. While other synthetic tiles may be manufactured from recycled materials such as tires or milk bottles, it is our opinion that the variability found in recycled materials could compromise the long term viability of a roof. Roofing tiles are exposed to extremely harsh conditions (extreme weather, extreme UV, extreme temperature). The only way to assure that a synthetic slate or shake will provide good service for 50 years or more is to consistently produce those tiles to very exacting standards. We do not feel it is possible to meet our high standards for quality and durability using recycled materials.


It all sounds good....but i would like to see one that has been on awhile,personally i would take real over synthetic,but curious on how these hold up.Does Ireland have a big market for the fiberglass shingles?

aussieroofer

it si my belief that yopu will get about 30 years from a fibre cement slate. you will get longer from a tile. i wouldnt think there would be a huge market for fibreglass shingles in ireland. i have not come across fibreglass in ireland as a roofing material, that is not to say that there is no one using it. it just not very wide spread. ireland is a frustrating place as far as the roofing industry is concerned. very stagnant. there is one or two companies that try hard but they opt to follow rather than lead. they will take a product that sells in a country with a large population and try to apply it here instead of pioneering a product for the irish market and try and sell it elsewhere.in a population of only 4.5 million and a planning system that is restrictive there is not much scope for diversity.

example. we have this ridge here called a universal ridge. meant for all pitches. only problem is it wont tie in right if you use it on a hipped roof. the ridge wont tie in with the hip cleanly unless you bed up the ridge on 3-6 inchs of cement. (as far as i am concerned cement should be kept to a minimium on a roof as it has a shorter life span that your tiles or slates thererfore reducing the lifespan of your roof.) this ridge is used everywhere but has no supporting accessories such as hip starters and apex joints to tie multiple hips into ridges. so basically it is a one ridge package

i approached all tile manufacturers here and asked why they wont develop a good rige package that is asthetically pleasing and practical to use. therre answer , believe it or not was " why would we do that , we sell loads of those ridges on their own". the boom is now over i wonder if their stance has changed. i tried to argue the point that if they produced a good package that looked good the general public would use it , couple that with a system that was easier to work with then you would have the backing of all roofing contractors and your market share would rocket. all for the cost of 10 more moulds to compliment the existing ridge tile. take the initiative and sell them as a package, act like you care. sadly nothing has changed 5 years on. such is the mindset of the roofing industry in ireland. you can however get these accessories with the man made slate.
there is no roofing association i ireland so the people applying the product are not consulted when it is being developed therefore we are left with a product that is poorly developed without the appropriate input. we can only be as good as the materials that are supplied to us, as there is no working partnership between contractors and suppliers our development is stagnant. its a shame because it forces our best irish minds out of ireland to be successful elsewhere.

Interloc

Tou should look into starting a association for roofing..I mean slate is awsome and all but teach them the benifits also of the fiberglass..money wise they would be less then slate i would think,which i'm sure alot of ppl would consider..just a thought..

aussieroofer

i think the penny just dropped on the fibreglass shingle.is it fixed like a tile but look like a slate. i did use a fibreglass tile in australia. tough as nails, great for the hail storms. and looked real good. does the colour fade on them. not unlike a slate. is there a website i could visit to get a look at them. a roofing association might not be a bad idea. need to find out to whats involved in setting up something like that. any idea on where to start?

jason

Interloc

pabco.com is one brand or certainteed.com for starting an association i would try one that is established and ask them the how too's