Roof Material And Design
The roof on your new home has three critical roles. It provides shelter from the outside weather conditions, forms part of the building’s structural integrity and offers visual appeal from outside the building.
When we look at new home construction as an overall today there is a large proportion of homes that are constructed with metal roofs today. If we look at older style homes built in locations of Adelaide, such as Tusmore, Toorak Gardens, Rose Park and St George’s, these typically had terracotta and cement style roof tiles installed (and still do today).
What Are The Benefits Of A Metal Roof
A metal roof is lightweight, and the roof sheets come in long lengths (sometimes in excess of 15 metres in length). Given the lengths of the new metal sheets, a new home’s roof can be installed fast. Metal roof sheets are lightweight (in comparison to tiles) and don’t require high-strength support from the timber frame design, unlike that of tiled roofs.
Metal roofs can be manufactured in a large range of colours, which creates huge flexibility when trying to blend in with the surrounding environment, such as coastal and hill locations across Adelaide.
Metal roofs provide good energy ratings for heating and cooling purposes in a new home. The metal roof does not hold the heat after a long day in the sun, allowing the roof space to cool down quicker at night. A metal roof installed with the correct insulation will not be noisy, as older style roofs may have been in the past.
Should I Install A Tiled Roof
A tiled roof looks amazing and still suits certain styles of houses. If you are building a heritage-style home, tiles on the roof will complement that style of new build. Although the colour range is not as large as that of iron roofing, there is still a good range of colours to choose from.
The pitch on a tiled roof will always be greater than that of a metal roof, as the water travels more slowly on the tiled surface and requires a greater slope to encourage the water to travel faster and help assist with the removal of debris at the same time.
Quite often, people will refer to a tiled roof as quieter than that of a metal roof, but as previously mentioned, if a metal roof is installed with the correct insulation, it should be comparable to that of a tiled roof. Tiles do tend to hold the heat from the sun longer than iron roofs, but once again, if the correct insulating processes are followed, this should not be a problem. As all new homes need to achieve a 7-star energy certificate, items such as insulation are carefully scrutinised on all new home builds today.
With the introduction of high-efficiency energy certificates required on new home construction, it is important to insulate a roof comprehensively. Sisalation, a product that has for a long time been overlooked, is now a must-have on all our new home builds across Adelaide, including the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Peninsula. Sisalation is a roll-out reflective foil barrier that assists in reflecting the heat and stopping it from entering the roof space. The sisalation is installed onto the roof supports prior to the iron or tiling being installed.
Inside the roof space and between the internal Gyprock ceiling is where the insulation batts are installed. At Mayfair Building Group, we use a brand of insulation batts called Bradford Gold. These batts come in a variety of energy ratings referred to as the R value. The batts are designed to suit ceiling joist spacings of 600mm and fit snug between each ceiling member to ensure minimal air gaps and heat losses and gains. Depending on what the energy consultant has specified will depend on what R value we use, but typically between R4 and R6 in the majority of suburban areas across Adelaide, with slight differences in the Adelaide Hills and Fleurieu Peninsula of South Australia.
Can I Install Solar Panels On Both Types Of Roofing Materials
Solar panels have become very popular over the last 25 years in Adelaide. Although the rebates for solar panels have slowly decreased, the benefits of creating energy for the home to use and potentially store if a battery is purchased are still a huge positive for a new home.
With the advances in modern technology, today solar panels have become lighter and make installation on roofs a lot easier. It is always recommended that, before the installation of solar panels onto a roof, a qualified engineer look over the roofing design and confirm that the roof structure can handle the additional weight from the solar system’s panels. If a new home is designed with the intention to install solar panels, we ensure this is factored into the new home’s design and the roof trusses, etc, are all capable of a solar array installation.