Was wondering what style roofing is mostly used in the dry desert areas of say Arizona and New Mexico?
I’ve seen a goodly number of tile roofs but was wondering about the intro tract homes of suburbia out that way. Seems the heat would shorten the life dramatically of the common asphalt/fiberglass mat granular shingle.
Could a standard shingle roof as that be covered with a white reflective metal roof several inches above the shingle to provide a shaded covering for the roof while venting away what heat buildup that makes it past the reflective properties of the metal?
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I live where the humidity in June runs 3% during the day and the UV index on a scale of 1 to 10 is around 99. The sun eventually destroys anything but stone, glass, concrete, and metal. Wood fares the worst, and you'll rarely see houses with cedar shingle roofs. We have plenty of homes with real/fake tile and asphalt shingle roofs. Asphalt roofs seem to hold up surprisingly wells long as the grit surface stays on the shingles to block the direct sunlight.
Leaving aesthetic considerations out of the mix, with the cost of materials and labor, it's probably cheaper to go with quality asphalt shingles even though they might last only 1/2 or 1/3 as long as a tile roof. Recently I've seen a few houses with the Hardi fiber-cement shingles and those probably will hold up well at a cost somewhere between tile and asphalt.
Thanks for the info.
What iare the main construction techniques used to lessen the intensity of heat transference into the dwelling from the ambient temps and the direct sun?
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Ceement tiles. Bout an inch thick.
They use those on the cheap slambang starter homes too?
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Oh those! They use corrogated roofing.
You mean standard metal seam 36" wide?
Is the metal sheeting placed directly over OSB with soffit/ridge venting over batt insulation or is it foam?
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Edited 7/20/2007 1:25 pm ET by rez
You mean standard metal seam 36" wide?
Well, a dozen years ago outside of Safford, AZ, it also meant the 3" radius "B" style galvanized with about one lap at the joints. (And bunches of pookie up where the sheet rooled up instead of getting the matching foam filled at the farm-n-ranch store--'cause nobody 'membered it at the time . . . )
Down to south AZ, I saw a lot of V-drip and double V-drip, but those were on less-ramshakle operations.
Tract builders seemed stuck on "cheapest 3 tab" though. Nice to see all the mock psuedo Capes shimmering in the AZ sun of April.Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
I'm jerking your chain;>)
The low cost housing option out there is called manufactured housing. it has metal roofs. You might have herd it called Mobile homes.
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oh yeah...mobile homes. How could I have forgotten.
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Most of the stuff in the Vegas valley is tile roofed. Can't remember anything with out in years. All forms of wood, shingles and shakes, have been banned as a fire hazard. Asphalt shingles will last about half, to two-thirds their advertised life if the attic has ventilation to help keep the heat down.
May parents home had a large (4500-cfm) swamp cooler that fed in on the first floor, and ducted into the attic on the second floor, and a large attic fan (3000-cfm)to blow it on out. The attic temps stayed around 135 or 140 in the afternoons. They got twenty years out of the first asphalt shingle roof. After Dad died, Mom quit using the swamper, and only uses the attic fan. The attic heats are in the 150 to 170 range and the asphalt shingles need to be replaced after ten years.
Depends upon the architectural style and the budget.
As several have observed, clay tile holds up real well, but one must consider the structural implications of the additional weight, and as roofs go, clay tile ain't cheap.
Metal holds up real well given enough pitch, and comes in some nice colors these days.
As for flat roofs, I think olefin resin membrane has a lot of advantages over either torch-down or EPDM. It's thermally bonded (welded with a heat gun), light, inexpensive, highly reflective, durable, easy to repair, and if properly installed, leakproof even where ponding is a problem.
Installed over isocyanurate insulation board it effectively addresses most of the problems of flat roofs in desert climates, including the severe daily and annual variations in temperature.