Roofing materials for your country home

Series: Tips on designing a country home.

In this multi-part series I will help give you tips on how to go about having a custom home built in the country, where it should sit, what it should look like, how it should function and what type of home performs the best and fits in with the surrounding country side.

Roofing

What you put on your roof in the country should not only be nice to look at but should also help protect your home from the extreme elements. There are different types of roofs depending on what you require and what your budget requirement are, here is a brief list of the most popular;

• Asphalt shingles. Asphalt shingles are by far the most cost efficient roofing material that you can install on your custom home. But what you save by putting them on when the home is built will be spend every 10 to 15 years when you have to re-shingle it. Asphalt shingles only have a life expectancy of 10 to 15 years regardless of if they are called 20 or 30 year shingles. They are susceptible to high winds, ice damming from poorly venting roofs or poorly insulated roofs, damage from flying debris, damage from overhanging tree limbs, animals can damage them and UV rays from the sun degrade the asphalt shingle prematurely.  There are some advantages to asphalt shingles, you can get them in a wide variety of colours, they are very easy to install and can be installed on most roofs. An asphalt shingled roof has more grip and is easier to walk on if you have to do anything on the roof. Also damage to a small part of a roof is easily fixable and patchable.

• Cedarshake. Cedarshake was a very popular roofing material especially on custom homes some years ago, but today because of several factors in the market they are not used very often. The poor quality of cedar being used, the way UV rays are causing the cedar to age and rot faster, the expense of buying the shakes, labour intensive to install and probability of moss growing on them causing rot when you have large dormers or valleys are other reasons that people are shying away from putting it on their roofs. There are some good things about cedarshake roofs, they add value to a custom home for resale, there very appealing to look at and they help a house fit into a natural woodsy environment.

• Enviroshake. Enviroshake is a product that was invented solely because of all the problems that I listed above in Cedarshakes. Enviroshake is a composite material that is created from recycled plastic, recycled rubber and ethanol plant waste. It is then stamped with a natural grain to give it the cedarshake look, it installs black and within 6 months fades to a silver colour just like cedar. It is installed the same way that cedarshakes are installed. It comes with a 50 year warranty, it is extremely durable to high winds, extreme weather, flying debris and branches scraping on its surface. It sheds snow almost like a steel roof does and UV rays do not seem to damage the product like it does to cedar. There are some downsides to it, it is expensive to purchase and install and it is a very slippery surface that can make walking on it dangerous. The finished look ends up looking like cedarshake but with a much longer warranty and better durability.

• Steel. Steel is by far the most popular of roofing products in today’s country custom homes. Steel comes in a wide variety of profiles, colours and quality. Steel has always been very popular in the country, not just on homes but also on barns and out buildings. Today’s steel is a lot different from the simple steel that was installed on top of the barns. Today’s steel roofs are one piece from the eave to the peak, there is no joint in the middle, they also have locking ribs that stop the wind from penetrating between them. Steel does a lot of things well; it stands up to UV rays, high winds, flying debris, most steel is strong enough to walk on, branches scrapping along the steel don’t do any damage to the steel and usually don’t even scratch the paint. Steel roofs have paint warranties that usually run 40 or more years which is a big change from the old steel where you had to hire someone to paint the barn roof every ten years. There are a few downsides to having steel roofs; low slopes are not ideal for steel, eavetrough do not do well with steel roofs because of sliding snow, the snow slides off them well and has to be managed with snow guards (especially over entrances to the home). Steel is also a pricey option then shingles but the longevity of it pays off in the long run.

There are other roofing materials and types of roofs but most of them do not function well in rural settings and can look out of place. Stick to the ones I have listed and you should be happy with the results.

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.

The changing of roofing materials in today's modern custom homes

Modern Day Construction for custom homes Part 6

In today’s modern world of construction things are changing year to year faster than they did decade to decade in any other previous time period. In this multi part series I will traverse through an entire house starting with the foundation and working my way up to the roof and then to the finishing’s. I will explain what has changed in the last twenty years in custom home building.

One thing that you should be able to take away from this is how important it is to not just hire the right general contractor to build your custom home but how important it is to hire one that is up on today’s building methods.

Here are some changes that have come along in the last 20 years alone;

Roofing materials

Twenty years ago, roofing materials were mostly asphalt shingles. Other less popular materials were cedar shingles and steel roofs.
Today’s roofing material have gone through some changes, but not as many as you would think in 20 years. The staple of most houses built toady is still asphalt shingles. With ever changing weather conditions today’s shingles are lasting shorter and shorter amounts of time. Asphalt shingles (either from the weather or from poor manufacturing) are not lasting as long as they did 20 years ago. This is pushing more and more people to more expensive alternatives to get longer life for their roof. Here are some of the new products people are using and some of the materials that have been around for a long time but have been advanced;

• Enviroshake. This is a roofing material that has been manufactured from recycled materials and plant extract waste material from ethanol manufacturing plants. They are formed to look like cedar shakes, right down to the wood grain that is stamped in them. It is installed the same way that cedar shakes are installed but have a 50 year warranty. They go on black and fade in 6 months to a silver finish that makes them look like a cedar shake. Cedar shakes do not have the longevity that they used too. Enviroshakes are slowly becoming closer to the same price as what it costs to have a cedar shake roof, but they are still more expensive at this time.

• Steel roofs. Steel roofs do not look like a barn roof anymore. There are so many different looks to steel roofs now days that with a little research you should be able to find the style and colour that fits you and your new home. With standing seem steel roofs becoming ever more popular you can now have steel roofs without the look of industrial or agricultural roofs. Steel roofs now come in a wide variety of colours and the paint has a life time warranty. A steel roof should last your home a lifetime. Steel also has the ability to withstand high winds and impact from debris and low hanging tree branches. UV doesn’t seem to have a negative effect on the steel or the finished paint.

• More and more custom homes are covering the roof completely in Ice and Water shield. This is a peel and stick membrane that gives your roof a watertight seal even after the roofing material fails. Twenty years ago they did one row as the norm and it was installed at the eves. Ice and Water shield works by coating the nails or screws that penetrate it with a waterproof coating creating a perfect watertight seal.

• Houses are now having a vent strip installed across the peak, they are then shingled over. This replaces the standard 3 or 4 roof vents. It gives the roof a clean look and adds more square footage of venting to help the roof breath.

• Starter strip and valley flashings used to be painted steel or straight galvanized steel. Today they are aluminum. This allows an easier installation because the aluminum is lighter and doesn’t rust like steel. You can now get aluminum starter and valleys in a variety of colours to help match the roof colour.

• Typical asphalt shingles are slowly being replaced by shingles that are made with fibreglass backing. This is supposed to allow the shingle to stand up to higher winds. Because shingles are failing quicker in the harsher weather, shingle companies have come out with a premium option for asphalt shingles. These premium shingles are 2 or 3 times thicker than the typical shingle and they also cost a fair bit more. Theses shingles have longer warranties and seem to be able to stand up longer to harsh weather then the cheaper conventional single ply shingles.

Look for part 7 coming soon...

Rob Abbott
Operations Manager
Village Builders Inc.