Roof Material Selection for a House on the Coast

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Introduction There are various considerations involved when building a house, the most important of which is the environment it is being built in. In the case at hand, in which the house is to be built near to the ocean, a number of things must be taken into account: × Sea air is very moist. This means that the materials used in the house’s construction should be chosen primarily because of their property to prevent dampening. × The chloride of the salt in salt water means metals near the sea are far more susceptible to rust than in other places. × Weather close to the sea is often cold and windy, which means the materials chosen should be thermally efficient and good insulators. × High coastal wind speeds means aspects of the house such as the roof must be sufficiently strong. Parentheses at the ends of sections or paragraphs indicate citations. Roof Construction A roof should protect the inside of the house from the effects of weather, and most importantly, rain. A roof material therefore must be waterproof. This rules out timber, because although it may be water resistant under a sealant, it requires regular maintenance and the area is not easily accessible. A roof preferably should be opaque too, as the heat effects of the sun on a transparent or translucent material would make the interior of the house very hot, ruling out the glasses. What we are left with are the metals, a selection of opaque ceramics, select polymers and composites and, to a lesser degree, organic materials (excluding timber). Three common categories of roof type that comprise the appropriate materials are as follows: × Corrugated (Steel or vinyl) × Thatch (Straw) × Tiles (Clay, slate, concrete and – more recently – rubber) Corrugated Corrugated roofs last very long, generally upwards of 50 years. They are prefabricated to a wide range of sizes, which makes installation

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