Roofing is the most important part of a country house, requiring proper and high-quality construction and the right decision on which roof to choose. This article talks about what characteristics the roof of the house should meet, what types of roof construction exist and what materials can be used to cover it.
When thinking about which roof color to choose, its design and coating, it should be borne in mind that the roof has two main functions:
- Protection of a residential building from negative environmental influences, leading both to microclimate disturbances in the room, and to damage and destruction of various structural elements;
- Giving the whole house an attractive and unique appearance, while both the design of the roof and the choice of the color of the roof and roofing play an important role.
To make the right choice of roof color, the following points should be considered:
- General architectural style of the building;
- The color of the materials used in the decoration of the facade.
In the case of a design close to the classic, various natural shades look most natural. The most common option is that the dark roof looks like a contrast to the light facade, which is quite pleasing to the eye and allows the house to stand out from other buildings.
A light roof allows you to visually increase the volume of the building and highlight the small details of the roof. It is also important to take into account how well different tones combine with each other, achieving harmony in the shape and color of the building, for example, for a light facade and a dark roof, the foundation line painted in the color of the roof looks quite nice.
Technical parameters of the roof
When choosing a roof structure, its type and material for covering, one should take into account the various indicators of the building box, as well as the design chosen for this building.
Depending on the chosen type of roof construction and the angle of inclination of the slopes, the material for roofing is also selected:
- With a slope of more than 20º piece materials such as tiles or slate can be used. These materials cannot be used at a lower angle of inclination, since rain and melt water will penetrate into the attic through the cracks in the joints of the material.
- With a roof slope not exceeding 20º, bituminous and roll materials for roofing should be used, when used for roofs with a slope of more than 20º, the material may heat up and slide off the roof at high ambient temperatures.
- Polymer roll roofing materials can be used for any type and angle of inclination of the roof.
- Metal sheet materials are used to cover the roof, the slope of which must be at least 10º.
A roof whose slope does not exceed 3º is called a flat roof and is considered the most economical type of roofing system, since it requires the least amount of building materials.
Important: Flat roof systems should only be used in areas with low rainfall during winter.
There are two main types of roof structures:
- Flat roof systems;
- Pitched roof systems.
With each type of roofing system, a different coating material is used, which provides the greatest efficiency, which also determines which color of the roof to choose.
Choosing the Type of Sloped Roofing System
When thinking about which roof to choose, it should be borne in mind that sloping roof systems are also divided into several types:
- Shed roof, the main emphasis of which falls on the load-bearing walls of the building. The construction of a roof of this type is a fairly simple process, but does not provide sufficient strength for a residential building of a large area, therefore it is more often used in the construction of utility or technical buildings;
- The gable roof is the most popular due to its high reliability and relative ease of construction. This type of roof consists of two flat slopes connected in the upper part by a ridge and two slopes located at an angle, continuing from the end of the flat slopes. Roofing possibilities of this type of a roof are practically not limited;
- Hipped roof structures are quite practical, but not very popular. They consist of four or six triangular slopes, interconnected and connected at the very top of the roof. The main thing in the construction of such a roof is the strict observance of symmetry, which makes such a roof suitable for covering square houses;
- One of the most complex is considered to be a hip roof structure, consisting of four slopes, two of which are trapezoid-shaped, and the other two, which are called hips, are triangles. There are hip and semi-hip varieties of such structures.
- In buildings with a large number of different angles, multi-pitched roof systems are used to cover several nearby buildings at the same time. This system is the most difficult to build and operate.
The choice of roofing material
Having chosen the type of roof construction, you can think about how to choose the color of the roof and the material for covering it.
There is a wide range of roof coverings on the market, but only a small part of them is worth considering in detail, i.e.The most common and popular materials in the construction of the roof:
- Polymeric and bitumen roofing materials are produced from the respective types of substances. The use of polymer particles in these materials is given to such a design as four-pitched hip roof, the required flexibility and resistance to stretching, which allows the use of these materials for the manufacture of a multi-layer roofing system, including a protective layer made of fine gravel. Such materials have excellent resistance to moisture and its negative effects, but they also have a significant drawback: a short service life due to poor resistance to low temperatures.
- One of the most popular roofing materials is slate, which has a whole range of positive characteristics, such as long service life, high strength, resistance to moisture and cold, as well as high fire safety due to increased resistance to high temperatures.
- Modern roofing technologies make it possible to use roofing felt, better known as roofing material, when covering the roof. gable mansard roof. This material is made on a solid basis of cardboard, impregnated with tar. In addition to roofing roofing felt, it can also be used as a layer of thermal insulation. Laying of this material is carried out using various adhesives and mastics. The main negative feature of roofing felt is its weak resistance to changes in temperature regimes: at high air temperatures, it melts, and at low temperatures, it breaks down.
- One of the building materials that have recently appeared on the market is piece material made from wood (shingles, shingles or shavings).This type of roofing material is not widely used in the territory of the former USSR, since it has low resistance to combustion, moisture and decay. A significant disadvantage is also the possibility of damage to this material by various insect species.
Roof covered with shingles - Quite durable and practical are roofing materials made from galvanized sheet steel. Their advantages are environmental safety, long service life, as well as resistance to moisture, combustion and cold. Proper installation of this material allows it to serve effectively up to 80 years. Its main disadvantage is the insufficiently modern appearance of the roof, due to which this material is not widely used in modern construction.
- Particular attention should also be paid to roofing panels produced at factories, the high quality of which is ensured by their structure, which includes a frame plate, layers of vapor and heat insulation, as well as bases of increased strength. The installation of this roofing material is quite simple and can be carried out regardless of the season and ambient temperature: the panels are simply fastened together using the supplied self-adhesive tape. The main disadvantage of this material is its rather high cost.
Tiled roof - One of the most practical and externally attractive roofing materials is tiles, which differ from other roofing materials in a large number of positive characteristics, such as increased strength, resistance to all negative external influences, etc.The main advantage of the tile is its long service life: as an example, we can cite such a structure as a standard gable roof of a house in Italy, on which for 300 years the roofing material has not even been damaged.
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