Popular Choices - Roofing Materials

Your choice of roofing materials mainly depends on where you live, your own personal taste, local styles and building codes. You need to be aware that if you want a thatched roof in New York City, that just won’t happen, but if you live in the South; maybe you can have a thatched roof. Choosing roofing materials and shingles is the time to consider costs, fire retarding abilities, and how long your shingles will last.

Types of Popular Roofing

The most popular used shingles for roofing are asphalt composition roofing shingles which are attractive, cost effective, long lasting and have high fire retarding properties. Asphalt shingles generally have 20 to 30 year warranties and may last even longer than the 30 year warranty.

Asphalt composition shingles in modern construction are thicker and more textured than ever before. You can get asphalt composition shingles that look like wood or slate. These types of shingles are called architectural shingles, but are higher in cost than less trendy shingles.

Asphalt shingles are easy to install and go up much faster than any other type of roofing material. The downside, or maybe this is not a downside, they can be installed by any Saturday roofer with the minimum of experience and expertise.

Wood shake roofing materials are gorgeous. They look fantastic, make your home higher in value and when they weather they look very rich. Wood shake materials are organic, but they can last for up to fifty years if properly maintained. Wood shake roofing is produced mainly from cedar and redwood, but you can also find pine wood shake roofing material that is a bit lower in cost.

Metal roofing is somewhat rare, but it is gaining popularity as a roofing material. You do need to find a roofer who specialized in metal roof installation. Trying to use fancy copper roofing material will provide a gorgeous and timely roof, but it is also very expensive and difficult to work with. Galvanized sheeting roofing materials are a better choice and will last up to 75 years. This long lasting type of roofing material makes it highly popular for homeowners who plan on living in their homes for life.

Composition slate roofing materials are similar in look to traditional slate but are less expensive and environmentally friendly. Composition slate is made from post-industrial synthetics; basically recycled materials. Composition slate is about one-third the weight of regular slate and looks almost the same; unless you get on the roof and inspect the tiles!

Another highly popular roofing material is ceramic or “Spanish style” roofing materials. This type of roofing is losing popularity because of its weight and expense. This type of roofing is called a half barrel tile since it is basically a cylinder cut in half. The space between the tiles does provide for water and air circulation which helps in cooling, but the tile can break and are somewhat difficult to re-install. Ceramic, clay and terra cotta tiles are highly fire-retardant, but other less costly roofing materials are also fire-retardant and can be highly attractive as well.

Metal Roofing Systems and Their Pros and Cons

Metal roofing systems are quite popular nowadays among the home owners. However, you must weigh the advantages as well as the disadvantages of them before fitting them on your house. The more common materials are also good and sometimes better than the metal counterparts and thus you must make a smart choice.

Here is a list of the pros and cons of metal roofing systems:

Pros:

Reflection of heat from the surface of metal is very good so it can keep your house cooler.
There is no doubt about it that your roof will never catch fire as metal is fire resistant and protects inner layers also.
A very good reason for you can be the weight of the metal roofing which is almost 5 times lighter than other materials.
Although the cost is high but the durability and the life of metal is much more than other counterparts so it compensates for the high cost.
Last but not the least, the ease and the speed of installing metal roofing is incomparable to other systems. 

Cons:

The cost of installing a metal roofing is very high when compared to the traditional materials
The sound of the rain drops can be romantic for some people but for others it is a painful experience as metal makes a lot of noise when something falls on it.
Hailstorms will definitely leave large dents on the roof if it is made up of metal just like your car.
Fasteners that are used to hold the roof fittings in place become loose with time due to expansion and contraction of metal in the hot and cold weather.
Modifying the metal roof or replacing/repairing it will be expensive.
There are chances, even if very bleak, that lightning strikes the metal roof so proper grounding is very essential.