How Do Flat Roofs Work

Built up roof bur the traditional hot tar and gravel roof is built from three or more plies of waterproof material alternated with hot tar and ballasted by a layer of smooth river stone.

How do flat roofs work.

While steep roofing is a shedding system flat roofing is a watertight skin or membrane that is formed over the top of the building. Once made of tar paper these types of roofs gradually are using more advanced materials such as fiberglass membranes. Flat roofing in residential settings may also be used for an outdoor living space or rooftop garden adding a unique element to the building. Flat roofs or low slope roofs are also commonly found on commercial buildings throughout the world.

Flat roofs usually come with a 10 to 20 year warranty but can last 25 years if you build the roofs right and maintain them using commonsense rules. The slope should be a minimum of 1 in 80 but in practice a minimum slope of 1 to 40 should be used to allow for deflection of the roof and for normal building tolerances. A flat roof not only works with the aesthetic of many building designs but it is also durable and resistant to environmental factors that can lead to roof damage such as wind hail and animals. The fully adhered method consists of gluing the membrane directly to insulation or to the substrate.

Flat roofs are an ancient form mostly used in arid climates and allow the roof space to be used as a living space or a living roof. The mechanically attached method consists of fastening each row of membrane to the roof deck with screws and barbed plates. For clarity flat roofs actually have a slight slope to allow rain water to drain off the roof but they seem flat when compared with more traditional steeply sloped roofs. The slope of a roof is properly known as its pitch and flat roofs have up to approximately 10.

If you think of a steep roof as an umbrella houses with flat roofs don t use umbrellas but use wet suits or to be more accurate dry suits.