Roofs

[TheOldFellow]

Yes! I didn't know about those. Thanks.

R.

[Appin]

The message from The Natural Philosopher contains these words:

We're talking at cross purposes here.

"The general use of "shingles" when referring to a North American roof is a reference to "asbestos-felt shingles" -- a strip of felt with a mineral dressing, made to look like three or four slates in a horzonal row. These strips are stapled and stuck down on the roof. Depending on the quality they'll have different lengths of warranty, but 20-25 years for the better ones is par for the course. Very often the next layer is simply put on on top of the worn-out previous layer.

Wooden shingles generally go on the walls of some very traditional-looking houses. These are sawn, tapered, slate-like pieces of (usually) cedar which wouldn't do on a roof at all.

What traditionally went on roofs were shakes which are much more expensive, much thicker, riven "shakes" which are much more durable.

[Andrew Gabriel]

Traditionally, English homes were built with design lives of 200 years. They don't all make it by any means for a variety of reasons and they don't expect to last that long with no maintenance, but that figure governed the design of the structure and choice of materials.

Many homes in the US (at least the areas I go to) aren't designed to last anything like that long, perhaps 50 years tops. There's no point putting a roof lasting 100 years on a home designed to last 50 years. Tearing down and rebuilding a home on a plot there seems much more common than it is here, and it's probably much cheaper than it would be here. Heck, they even get the termites to do the tearing down ;-)

[Huge]

They're called "scrapers". You buy the house for the plot it's standing on, scrape the old house off with a bulldozer and build a new house.

[John]

They seem to be less sentimental about the structure - more concerned with the inside.

Having seen industrial steel framed building being constructed in few days, I can't understand why the UK doesn't adopt some of the principles. Steel frame, Insulated large panels, etc.

Did you see that TV programme recently of estate being built in USA? Started with a factory at the centre with craneage - houses built inside the factory and then moved out on bogies to the pre laid footings. No working in the cold and wet. Houses dry from the outset.

[Alang]

There is an estate of WW2 prefab houses in the area I grew up that are still standing. The LA housing dept refurbished them a few years ago instead of knocking them down. Proves prefab building methods can work.