Say No To Tiles: Top Four Reasons To Reroof With Steel Sheets

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It is said that the most popular roofing material in Australia is steel. However, there are those who choose to roof their home with terracotta or concrete roof tiles. Now that your home needs reroofing, you need to decide which product you are going to go with. These four reasons why steel roofs beat the tile alternative should be enough to help you make your final decision.

Wind Rating

The location of your home is going to determine what type of wind rating your home has to withstand. Queensland homes, for example, often face cyclone conditions, so the rating for their roofs is higher than a home that is situated inland, away from the coastline. To determine what rating your new roof has to comply with, contact your local council. Alternatively, you can follow an online questionnaire to get an estimation for yourself.

The uplift force of a cyclone makes the roof the most vulnerable part of your home during a tropical storm or cyclone. Tiles will lift more easily than steel sheets because they are smaller. There is less of the tile surface attached to the roof trusses than with a steel sheet, so they can become loose more quickly in the wind.

Hail Storms

In New South Wales, hail storms are quite a common occurrence. Hail stones as big as 14 cm have been recorded by the Bureau of Meteorology in the Northern Rivers part of this state.

When it comes to sustained damage to roofs by hail storms, steel sheets come out the winner in a competition against tiles. The impact of large hail stones on tile roofs can cause the tiles to shatter. This will cause them to come away from the roof truss, and leave your roof exposed to the elements.

While steel roofs may show small dents from the stone impact, they will not leave your roof compromised and leaking.

Warranty

A steel roof offers you close to double the warranty period of a concrete roof tile. As a steel roof has an expected lifespan of several decades, you will only anticipate replacing the roof once during your lifetime. Therefore, the length of warranty should play into your purchasing decision if you want to be sure that your roof will perform for as long as you believe it will.

Maintenance

Steel roofs require a lot less maintenance than tiles do. Steel roofs receive a wash every time there is a good downpour in your area, so they need little more than an annual inspection to check for any nail corrosion.

Tiles, on the other hand, are a high maintenance product. When it rains, your tiles will absorb some water into them before they reach their saturation point and then the rain runs off. When there is a situation where it continually rains, and your tiles are exposed to that and Australian humidity, the saturated water can begin to grow black mould and moss.

Mould and moss have to be scrubbed off your roof, and this is a labour intensive task. Not only is the mould and moss ugly to look at, but left untreated it could spread beneath the roof and start growing in the roof space cavity. If these spores enter the home, they could cause health problems for every family member.

Now that you know you are going to choose to reroof your home with steel sheets, you now have to make the tough decision of what colour you are going to select. With over 20 colour choices, it is time to have a chat to your roofing specialist and decide which one is going to best enhance the exterior colour of your home.

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24 November 2014

Finding the Best Contractors for the Job

Welcome to my blog, my name is Blake and from now on, I will be writing a series of blogs which will deal with the process of finding and working with contractors when constructing a new building. I am not a construction specialist but last summer I gained a lot of experience in this area when I hired a team of 32 contractors to build a holiday home. When hiring contractors, it is important that you understand how to communicate with them and their ways of working. Below are a series of blogs which will help you to find the best contractors.