When people need a strong and durable roofing material, they often find themselves having to choose between concrete tiles and metal sheets. Both can last for decades into the future, but concrete offers maintenance problems that metal roofs avoid, and those issues can add up to a roof that needs to be repaired despite the toughness of concrete.
Concrete tiles create more lines of failure
Perhaps the biggest problem with concrete roofs is that they are made using numerous separate tiles. In contrast, metal roofs will be made of relatively few large metal sheets. With so many tiles covering your roof, there are more possible points of failure. Nails or fasteners can fail, individual tiles can crack and escape notice, and improper flashing can cause leaking. When moisture starts to come through, mould and mildew can develop between tiles, unseen from below. Eventually, penetrating moisture will start to damage your property, possibly affecting its structural integrity.
Concrete tiles need to be cleaned regularly
Since individual cracks can be hard to spot, you'll need to check your roof on a fairly regular basis. Cleaning will also need to be carried out regularly since concrete is a porous surface while metal is not. If you don't take care of routine maintenance, moss can easily accumulate.
Concrete tiles are easy to break
Concrete is a very tough material, but concrete tiles are still relatively easy to break underfoot. Walking across them is also strongly discouraged since they can give way and see you tumbling downwards. Essentially, you have a roofing material that requires routine cleaning but is also very hard to walk on. Even ladders can cause damage when they are propped against the side of your roof, making everything from cleaning gutters to installing a satellite dish a cause for concern. Metal roofs will not break underfoot and are a lot safer to walk on.
Concrete tiles are heavier than metal sheets
Metal roofing sheets can be beaten quite thin, making them relatively light. In contrast, concrete roofing tiles are very heavy. This is an important consideration since any tiles that become broken or misaligned can place too much pressure on the underlying structure. Additionally, the weight of concrete tiles makes it quite hard to replace them, especially given the difficulties involved in walking on the other tiles. Combine that difficulty with the high cost of concrete tiles to understand just how expensive repair work can be.
Share5 May 2017
Hi and welcome to my blog. My name is Jules, and several years ago, I bought an old house. As it needed so many repairs, we learned to compromise and prioritise our goals. That included the roof. Although the house needed a roof, we spent a few years working on other elements of the house, and during that time, we repaired and patched parts of the roof or added shingles as needed. Finally, we were able to replace the entire thing. I learned a lot through the process and wanted to create a blog about it. If you are interested in anything to do with roofs, please check out my posts.
