Mar 24
Roofing Shingles Are They What You Are Looking For?
Most homes have roofing shingles, but most homeowners don’t spend much time thinking about them. Roofing Shingles provide a single layer solution to a leak resistant roof. Roofing shingles are laid from the bottom of the roof, with each subsequent row overlapping the row below it. Early shingles were made of wood and were capped at the top with a row of copper or lead sheeting. In modern shingle roofs this cap has been replaced by a row of roofing shingles that includes a plastic underlay.
In the old days wood roofing shingles were considered good. But in time modern materials such as asphalt and asbestos cement replaced wood as common materials. Today fiberglass based asphalt shingles are the most popular roofing shingle used in the United States. Wood and paper backed roofing shingles have fallen out of use due to their susceptibility to fire.
Most people have seen a special type of wood shingle, but wouldn’t be able to identify it. It’s called a shake, which is a wooden shingle made from split logs. Shake roofs were common with log cabins, and with many wood frame homes. They’re still in use today, most commonly cut on site then transported by helicopters, but it wasn’t always done that way. Before the invention of helicopters the shakes were tied into packs and transported by pack animal or even by human power. Often cut in hilly areas, they were carried down the slope with the help of a long line run from the bottom to the top. This line served as a kind of hand hold so people carrying the shake packs wouldn’t fall.
The main difference between a shingle and a tile is flexibility. Tiles are generally made from ceramic. They’re brittle and ill suited to locations where tree limbs might fall on a roof. Shingles are flexible and therefor better able to stand up to tree limbs. Wood shingles rot, while ceramic tiles don’t, but modern materials such as the asbestos base for most shingles don’t rot. Another main difference is in the shape. Ceramic tiles have an “S” profile to allow them to interlock for strength while roofing shingles are flat.
One of the more unique materials for roofing shingles is slate. Slate can be easily split into thin sheets. Such sheets, the slate roofing shingles, make for an rustic look for a roof. Slaters, tradesmen trained to work with slate, cut and install slate roofing shingles. The same qualities that make slate excellent for roofing shingles, it is fireproof and an electric insulator, made it useful for early twentieth century switchboards and relay controls on large electric motors. Imagine that, making a phone call on your roofing shingles.
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