TYPES OF ROOFS

INTRODUCTION

Roof, this is top superstructure part of building, serving to protect building, households and all furniture against rain, snow, sunlight, wind and extreme temperatures.

Roofs these are one of important parts of the building, you cannot find buildings without roofs, but what you will find is buildings constructed with different kinds of roofs; in this post you will know different kinds of roofs that you can design and construct in your building project.

FUNCTIONAL REQUIREMENTS

1. Weather resistance

Roofs are made up of two important parts which are structural part (roof structure) and roof covering, most of structural parts are made of materials which are not weather resistant such as timber and steel.

This structure should be covered by roof covering which are weather resistant and impermeable, that they prevent ingress of rainwater, snow and other weather effects into the building.

2. Adequate Drainage

Well designed and constructed roof should possess a sloping length that will allow effective drainage of rainwater or snow depending to weather condition of a location.

Drainage of rainwater or snow from roof will reduce the roof burden or load to structural part, also will avoid water pounding on roof that could deteriorate roof cover.

3. Structural Stability

The roof structural part which can be made of timber, steel or concrete should be designed in such way that it will be able to withstand all expected loads from it's own weight, roof cover, rainfall, snow or working men on roof.

4. Thermal Insulation

A well designed roof and suitable chosen roof covering materials will bring cool conditions inside building as it does not allow direct heat from the sun or cold conditions from outside building to have direct effects to households inside the building.

5. Good Appearance

The appearance and aesthetic value of the constructed building is influenced by the chosen design, type and color of roof covering relative to building external environment.

TYPES OF ROOFS

1. Flat Roofs

These are roofs that have designed and constructed with roof inclination angle less or equal to 10°, these kind of roofs have inadequate drainage of rainwater water which could lead to water ponds on roofs or dampness for concrete flat roofs, as water drain too slowly in such a way that it has effect on roof cover.

These kind of roof is not favorable in areas with cold weather where they are suspectable to snow, because snow will fail to fall out of flat roof.

2. Slopes Roofs

These are roof which are designed and constructed with roof inclination angle greater than 10°, these roofs are constructed with sloping lengths which facilitate effective flow of water and snow (for roofs inclined at larger angles).

There are different kinds of sloping roofs dependent to shapes and designs of sloping lengths, the following are examples of types of sloping roofs.

3. Shells

These are curved roofs made of thin structural material or membrane, these roofs can be made of reinforced concrete,timber, steel sheets or plastic.

These are modification of pitched roofs so as to allow to cover larger spanning buildings.

4. Domes

These are roofs designed and constructed with hemispherical shape (that is shape of dome).

These dome roofs has some advantages  when compared to pitched foods and flat roofs which are; 

• Have better control of temperature from internal and external environment.
• They are more stable and stronger to withstand different forced that act on it.

CONCLUSION

The choice for design and construction of roof of building is dependent to climatic condition of an area and uses of building.

There are different types of roofs that can be constructed which are flat roofs, sloping roofs, shells and domes.

OTHER RELATED POST

Estimation of roof covering Materials.