Aluminium roofing "slates".

Noise when it rains.

Pikeys with ladders

Would it though? I know sheet material will cause a racket but if the "slates" are small and individually fixed, surely that will cut a lot of drumming down?

Welsh slate is 5.5mm, 7mm or 9mm, depending on grade, according to the company making them.

Why not 20" wide strips, with the surface engraved every 10 inches, to make it look like individual slates, or simply one of the purpose made metal roofing systems?

Which is what was used to fix our slate roof, when that was replaced around 30 years ago. I drove up to Wales and collected the pallets, although you would need a licence to drive a 7.5 tonne truck to get any useful load home. Even with the overnight stay for two people, it worked out cheaper to by best grade new slates at the mine than to buy refurbished slates nearer home, although I did not need to hire a vehicle.

Expected life 100-150 years for a good slate roof, 30-50 years for a metal roof.

Not noticeable, except in the very heaviest storms, in my factory units, but they had double wall roofs with quite thick insulation between.

I have one zinc(?) weathering slate where the soil vent pipe goes up through my roof, it is much noisier than the lead slate it replaced.

my clay tile roof is 112 years old,

The clay tile roof on this house lasted about 80 years before it needed to be replaced, which is about average. The tiles were becoming porous and winter frosts were causing them to have bits starting to break off. The metal brackets at the ends of the ridges had also rusted away.

David Paste snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote

No point in having the aluminuum slates that thick.

Much more farting around attaching them. Continuous sheets of aluminium from top to bottom of the slope would be much better in all respects except appearance.

Yes.

Nope, you can have a plastic washer under the head.

No maintenance required at all.

David Paste snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote

Yep, much more noisy than slate.

Nope.

That's bullshit. Essentially lasts forever with an aluminium roof except right on the beach front and even then with the right grade of alumium it will last forever too.

My galvanised metal decking on my flat roof has been there for

Well, oxidisation is the enemy, so they would need to be treated first, and being so light, they might blow off more easily. Look a bit odd to I'd imagine, and in some areas you have to match the local colours if they are conservard to put a TV aerial in the loft I'd assume. Might it get struck by lightning and how would you do the ridge and flashing to stop leaks?

Funnily enough, although most are now gone, some industrial buildings used asbestos tiles. Brian

I don't agree, since there are a lot of tin and plastic roofs that are noisy. Conservatories made with plastic roofs are particularly bad. I have seen aerial masts through roofs of ordinary tiles with an ally casting that has a seal around the rotating mast and a flange to fit in with the tiles, but this was presumably just to stop leaks. It was seen on Malta, where in the time I was there, they could tet TV from several places. This kept the rotator inside the loft, so it was not such an eyesore. Brian

Why, the oxidisation is the protection.

Think greenhouses frames and how long they stand without treatment.

OT: From experience of helping moving greenhouses. First buy new replacement ali bolts and nuts, and enough for the whole job. They will save you lots of time and frustration on re-assembly.

I'm sure that they would come up with a good method if they became popular or if some company started marketing them. Last year I saw a web page for copper ridge tiles and how they were fixed so a method is not unknown. The idea of a copper ridge tile is to inhibit the growth of moss and lichen.

They do wear. We collect the rainwater from our tile roof, and a few months ago I needed to deal with a blockage in our diverter. It was nearly solid red clay, presumably a leaf or similar having given the buildup a start. In the first butt fed by the diverter, there was about four inches of clay. That was probably about 15-20 years worth. I haven't bothered trying to calculate what thickness of tile that represents.

I think you may find most “metal” slates are actually steel that has been coated. Google “Coated Steel Roof Tiles”

We had a double glazed roof removed from our conservatory and replaced with an insulated roof the tiles were steel coated panels. These have been up

Richard

They make stainless steel roof. There are some UK firms offering that. There's more than one way to install stainless. (A company in one of the Nordic countries, welds the overlapped ridges.)

And they even make titanium roof material. Think how resistant to hail that will be. I somehow doubt this would be a "quiet" roof.

Paul

Just because different roof materials exist it doesn't mean that its the best solution. You will not see many domestic housing new builds with anything but concrete/clay or composite slate effect tiles being used.

It could be cost is the driving factor in new builds?

Could it be that unless the insulation is placed under the tiles a roof space in a domestic property will get too hot or cold with metal tiles/sheets. I have grey concrete tiles and my loft space was reaching

Brian Gaff snipped-for-privacy@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote

Nope, not with the right grade of aluminium.

Not when attached properly.

Nope, no worse than a metal roof.

Same way you do any metal roof.