One of the oldest methods of roofing is soft roofing. Its story begins with how a man stretched the bark of a tree or skin over poles to protect himself from the sun and rain. Today, of course, no one uses fur for the roof, there are a huge number of other, much more effective materials. As well as many technologies with which you can make her device.
All types of soft roofs have their advantages and disadvantages.
Dignity
Among the advantages of a soft roof are the following:
- the ability to arrange roofs of various complex shapes;
- easy to install, no heavy machinery required;
- excellent waterproofing qualities;
- good maintainability;
- low specific gravity;
- does not make noise when it rains;
- not corroded;
- when installing a small amount of waste;
- low cost.
Cons
You need to understand that any type of soft roof, despite the mass of its positive properties, have disadvantages. Although science and technology are not standing still, and materials are improving all the time.
So, cons:
- the need for a solid base;
- poor fire resistance;
- weak thermal insulation qualities;
- when a small area is damaged, the whole sheet needs to be replaced.
Types of soft roofs
Only half a century ago, the number of materials for its device was limited to 2-3 items, among which were several types of roofing material, as well as roofing paper based on bitumen-impregnated paper.
Today, types of soft roof roofs are represented by a variety of materials on a variety of basis with different properties, applications and appearance. New varieties appear almost every day, so in this article we will try to tell at least about the most common of them.
Flexible tile
This is the so-called bituminous soft roof (its types come in different shapes and colors, but we'll talk about this below). It consists of three layers. External - visible to us - is a stone colored crumb. Next comes the bitumen applied from 2 sides to the fiberglass. And the bottom layer is rubber-bitumen. It is also adhesive. It should be noted that this type of roof provides maximum efficiency in terms of leakage (water resistance) andabsolute tightness of the coating. Also, its important qualities are the absence of delamination, rotting and corrosion. Also, when installing such a roof, the smallest percentage of waste. By comparison, waste when creating roofs from metal tiles reaches 50%. At the same time, for a flexible tile, a waste rate of 5% qualifies as already very large.
This soft roof has a wide variety of types. It is produced in the widest color range and a huge variety of shapes: hexagons, rectangles, semicircles; there are laminated and multilayer tiles.
Its advantage is the ability to create a roof with complex geometry, which makes it possible to satisfy the needs of most demanding customers, as well as to realize the unusual ideas of architects. In addition, such a roof is a completely silent material, since it has excellent soundproofing properties. Its warranty is on average 20 years, but the actual service life reaches half a century.
Among the disadvantages of such a roof, only the cost can be distinguished, which is much higher than that of a metal tile. This is due to the fact that this material requires a perfectly even base (battens made of moisture-resistant plywood or dry wood, which are not cheap). Its main manufacturers are Ruflex, Icopal, Tegola, TechnoNIKOL.
Roll roofing
It is necessary to make a reservation right away that the types of rolled soft roof are different. One of the most popular and cheapest materials in this category is ordinary, allwell-known ruberoid. Its basis is the roofing cardboard impregnated with bitumen. After this treatment, both sides are covered with a special layer consisting of a mixture of mineral filler and bitumen. The last stage of production involves coating the outer part of the roll with powder. It should be emphasized that such roofing material differs from roofing material in the density of cardboard.
The service life of such material is 5 years. At the present moment, the technology has changed a little, and at the base, polyester fabric or fiberglass canvas is often added to the cardboard. Changes in technology have made it possible to double the durability of the material.
Another popular roofing material is rubemast, which is characterized as a built-up bituminous material. Its main difference from roofing material is the high content of bitumen, which is located at the bottom of the canvas.
Similar types of soft roofs, photos of which are presented in this article, are called glass roofing material, glass isol and glass mast. Their basis is fiberglass. At the moment, one of the most advanced options among roll materials is euroruberoid - a bitumen-polymer membrane.
After getting acquainted with the types of roll materials, a reasonable question arises about how they are produced. Their manufacturing technology is simple. A special cover layer (a mixture of bitumen and polymer additives) is applied to a fiberglass or polyester backing. The service life of this materialis about 20 years old. Its only drawback is considered poor resistance to low temperatures, therefore, when laying, it is necessary to provide at least 3-4 layers.
All roll materials are suitable for roofing with a slope of 45 °. Since rolled roofing material has a sufficiently high level of water resistance, it is used even on flat roofs. Such materials are made in the form of panels, which are then cut and rolled into large rolls. Their width is mainly 1 m with a length of 10-15 m.
Membrane roofing
This term should be understood as all kinds of roll-type soft roofing. Such materials are produced in different forms:
- Polyolefin roofing.
- Thermoplastic roofing.
- Ethylene-propylene-diene-monomer roofing.
- PVC roofing.
The polymer membrane has been used in the West for more than 50 years, but in our country this material has been known for about two decades. At present, in Europe, the polymer membrane accounts for about 80% of all roofing soft materials.
It is characterized by flexibility, high strength, frost resistance, weather and ozone resistance, resistance to oxidation and UV rays. It is also durable - its service life is about 50 years without repair.
Ease of use is ensured by a significant width of the membrane, this makes it possible to select the optimal size when installing a roofindustrial buildings and large construction sites, which minimizes the number of seams. Membrane roofing can be installed throughout the year.
Soft roof: types, reviews
Today you can find a lot of positive feedback on the soft roof. People note the possibility of creating roofs of various shapes, the absence of noise in the rain, ease of installation. Of course, along with all the positive reviews, you can also find negative ones, mainly related to the need to create a solid base, which creates additional costs for materials and craftsmen.
Roof installation
There are many varieties of soft roofing, the types of work, therefore, also differ and depend on the material chosen. Next, consider the general requirements for various designs.
Rafters
For such a roof, truss structures are no different from other roof structures. The exception is that almost all types of coating require a plywood crate, whose weight must be taken into account when calculating the strength.
Crate
Almost all types of soft roofs, as already mentioned, require plywood sheathing. An exception is the ondulin roof, the slope of which is more than 12˚. In this case, a crate with a small step is possible, which is negotiated for each specific material.
Roofing cake
There are already a lot more features here. If the room in which the device is madeheated roof, then another layer of thermal insulation is required, while all materials of this type have a very high thermal conductivity.
It is almost always necessary to plan vapor barrier membranes in order to prevent damage to the batten and the occurrence of condensation. Some roll materials need to be laid in several layers. A separate type of sheet is intended for the cover top layer in multi-layer laying.
The most widely used and well-known types of soft roofing were considered in the article. The use of any of these materials makes it possible to obtain an aesthetically pleasing, modern roof, as well as a reliable structure with a long service life.
