The roof is one of the first structural elements of a building that catches the eye when looking at the building. And in order for the roof to become a real decoration of your home, you should definitely think about how to cover the roof of the house in order to ensure not only its reliability and long-term operation, but also a decent appearance.
Roof covering is a rather complicated process, but if you want to take on its device yourself, there is nothing that could stop you.
First of all, you should understand the fact that almost any roof, in fact, is a combination of functional layers or, in other words, a roofing pie.
The layers of this "pie" are as follows:
- standard roof deck;
- vapor barrier layer;
- insulation layer;
- roofing layer.
There may be more of them, which depends mainly on which roof covering technology is chosen, what is the climate and other features of the area where the house is located.
Let's go through each layer of the roofing pie in turn with a description of the properties and features of the device.
Roofing device
After the installation of the truss structure is completed, the installation of the crate begins, on which the roofing material will subsequently be installed.
The crate can be solid or made with a certain step, which depends on the roofing material chosen for the device. For example, when buying material for a soft roof, you will definitely need to perform a continuous crate.
Such a crate can be made of moisture resistant plywood. If materials such as met prof, metal tile or ondulin were purchased, then for such materials a crate can be installed from beams mounted with a certain step, for example, 40-50 cm.
At the same time, the bars for the construction of the crate are chosen with a thickness of 20-25 mm.
In addition, the battens of private houses are necessarily arranged with an overhang, which is small, but it is made around the entire perimeter of the structure. Through the overhang, they form a kind of cornice, which in the future will protect the house from oblique downpours.
Installation of a vapor barrier layer
At the end of the construction, the battens pass to the installation of a vapor barrier layer.
If further use of the attic space as a living space is expected, then a vapor barrier must be laid under the roofing material. In order to qualitatively cover the roof with a vapor barrier material, an isospan or yutafan film is used.
If the attic room is not supposed to be used in any way in the future, then it is desirable, but not necessary, to arrange a vapor barrier layer.
The vapor barrier layer is laid according to the following rules:
- the film is rolled out, starting from the lower right edge of the roof slope;
- each row of film is laid on top of the crate, while an overlap between the rows of film of 5-7 cm should be provided.
Roof insulation installation
If you are interested in the question of how to properly cover the roof, remember that next you need to arrange a layer of insulation, since a warm roof will provide significant savings on heating the house.
Almost every modern roof is made warm. As a heater, it is customary to use mineral wool, ursu, and isover tile-type insulation.
The selected thermal insulation material, among other things, must be resistant to water, frost resistance, and must not have an unpleasant odor and emit harmful substances.
The thermal insulation is laid under the vapor barrier layer with an overlap of 5-7 cm between the rafters, while the corners of the crate are reliably insulated.
Between the layer of thermal insulation and the crate, an air space is necessarily left. The width of such a space should be at least 5 cm.
Neglecting this advice can lead to the fact that the insulation will begin to deteriorate over time due to the accumulation of condensate in it. For the arrangement of airspace, a counter-lattice is mounted. It is installed along the rafters.
Installation of roofing material
How to properly cover the roof:
- Regardless of the type of roofing material, they begin to lay it from the bottom up. This is necessary to arrange the overlapping of the material in such a way that a reliable barrier to the flow of rainwater is provided.
- Wavy roofing sheets should be laid, guided by the direction of the prevailing winds in the region where the house is located. Such sheets are laid either from right to left or from left to right, with left- or right-hand wind direction, respectively.
- Roofing material on the roof is assembled like a children's designer. Materials that do not have special fasteners (corrugated board, metal tiles, etc.) are mounted using special nails or screws. The color of the fasteners must match the color of the roof. This type of nails should be fastened to the crests of roofing sheets, after putting rubber seals on the nails.
In the end, in order to cover the roof with your own hands, you will need to mount overhangs and install snow-retaining elements.
Ventilation of the roofing pie
The ventilation system of the subroofing layer is the most important component of the structure, since the period and quality of operation of the entire roof depends on it. This system protects the roof from moisture - its main enemy.
The ventilation system provides air circulation under the roof, which prevents the insulation from retaining moisture and losing heat-insulating properties from this.Circulation occurs through natural draft or with the use of special ventilating devices.
Advice! Particular attention should be paid to roof valleys and other border areas, since they are the most exposed to moisture and experience significant pressure from water.
At the end of the installation of the roof, it should be possible to inspect the roof for damage in the future. For this purpose, it is necessary to arrange a stationary staircase on the roof.
In addition, before you close the roof yourself, at each stage of covering the roof with your own hands, means must be provided to comply with safety regulations when working at height.
For example, you need to tie yourself with a rope tied to a skate, and if possible, use special mounting equipment. It is forbidden to carry out roofing work in strong winds and rain.
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