Why roof tiles exist. I understand why we don’t have flat roofs, but why do we have hundreds of tiles that sort of overlap each other and can be pulled or blown off easily?
Why aren’t roofs like a giant tent, still A shaped but each side is just a big sheet of whatever weatherproof material we got?
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They do for flat roofs or tar and paper roofs.
The great thing about tile is you can replace damage really easily.
I would imagine the history of roofing is something like:
– Leaves and Branches
– Thatch, which if you overlap it, works pretty well
– Wooden shingles, pretty cool but rot away / burn, so…
– Clay or slate tiles
The size of the tiles is going to be limited to what one guy up on a ladder can comfortably lay on his own.
I should point out that we do in fact, do these kinds of roofs. They’re called sheet roofs, imaginatively enough. Lysaght is an example. Made of thin steel sheets corrugated.
They have the advantage of being lighter and cheaper, and you can also make them much flatter than tile roofs (1-3 degrees vs 20). Especially in high cost of labor regions, they take a whole lot less man-hours, which will save you money on the front end.
Disadvantage is that yeah, they don’t last as long, and repairing them can be something of a hassle
OP sheet metal roofs exist, my house and garage have metal roofs. They aren’t one piece but aren’t like tiles or shingles either. last a long time but they’re noisy when it rains. They’re also fireproof.
In my country we use both tiled and sheet roofing. Long run metal sheet roofing is still installed in sections though as each roof truss design is individual so you need to be able to cut the sheets to the custom shape. Rigid (heavy) tiled roofing is less desirable for us now due to the local earthquake risk.
Tiles are easier to mass produce to work with any roof cheaply.
And I imagine any material durable enough for single-piece roofing could warp/expand/contract in the heat/cold which could damage or dislodge it over time.
Tiles as in small bitum squares you use in US? No idea, lot’s of countries use similar materials but they are usually done in big roles. Why shingles sized like ceramic/concrete tiles are a thing is beyond me.
There are sheets underneath the tiles that provide the actual waterproofing. The tiles are a for a combination of insulation and protection from solar radiation that can break down the asphalt in the roof sheeting. Basically, the tiles are there because clay and cement and composite ceramics are very long lived, relatively cheap materials that can be replaced piecemeal as they blow off or break during regular maintenance, but protect the asphaltic sheets below them.
ELyou’reactually5: the actual waterproofing of a tile roof is made of waterproof sheets that are vulnerable to sunlight breaking it down. The tiles are like a bulletproof vest that you can put on the membrane to protect it from the sun.
In addition to what others have said, there the issue of fastening it to the roof. With tiles or shingles, you can nail them down on the top half, and then cover up the nail heads with the tile/shingle above it. With one big sheet, you have nothing to cover the nails. Now either you need to use some other method like an adhesive (can get more complicated making sure it’s right) or cover nail holes with something like caulking (you’ll use *a lot* of caulking, and it tend to break down and need redone sooner than other materials).
Aside from the other answers you got, there’s another one:
The tiles/shingles/etc are not for waterproofing. They’re primarily to protect the waterproofing layer under them.
Waterproof materials tend to break down under sunlight, and most are easily torn, punctured or broken by hail and other hazards a roof has to survive. So you don’t have the waterproof material as the top layer of the roof.
If you were looking at the roof from the side, it’s usually:
tiles/shingles/metal/etc
waterproof layer (used to be tar, then tar paper or rubber, now it’s a plasticized fabric)
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