Home & Garden Need to replace roof...

Curious how long these roof panels last and if there is specific maintenance that should be done to make them last. For example, paint every X years.

 

A builder told me not to bother with gutters. That gutters are usually the first part of the roof that needs maintenance, if not replacement.

 

The link is not loading! What is siding?

 

Oh Jimmy boy! am surprised ye didnae ken that wan, Siding? is a daft US term for exterior wall cladding, this is the exact description from the US Jester dictionary.

GI roof sheets are just Sh!te, the gutter system that goes with it and the methods employed are terrible, as far as I know the way they transition the squared gutter to the round downpipe is by forming a bit of the scrap sheet metal into a round with a Pop Riveted seem, this is so very bad and I can only guess there is not a preformed part for this application?

The answer to all of the above problems is to use the IMAC roofing system, available from DN Steel, this is uPVC plastic roofing of very high quality, little of any heat passes through it, I know this as I used this on the roof of the wee Hoose I built there, it is a more resilient material than GI steel, me being a Fat Fecker I can jump on the sheet and find it impossible to distort the profiles or even dent it, with the right design this provides a very cool roof and requires no insulation, it does not rust and a lot less noisy in the rain, they also have a fit for purpose uPVC gutter system that goes with it, this is a well designed product originally intended for use on commercial buildings.

 

Many times I have seen houses for sale in PH and these being described as Western Style or even worse built to Western Standards this you will never get, all you can ever get is the Style but never the build standard even if they are done under a Foreigners control, these useless Pinoy construction workers will beat the Foreigner in the end. When western standard is the description this usually implies a large Feck off Texan style with everything being bigger and better from there? their standards would not meet the building codes of those in UK,

However, when it comes to Roofs I would say any being done in a western style are unsuitable for any hot tropical climate, giving a good flow of air to the underside of the Roof sheets is a prime requirement for a Roof in this instance, at the very least some form of venting at ridge height is a must to allow the hot air to escape, even using GI steel sheets the temp can be greatly reduced in the attic if it is well vented, but for the hot air to rise out of these top vents an equal amount of air has to enter at a lower level otherwise the airflow would be restricted and perhaps not all that effective? consideration has to be given to wind resistance with large open vents, an example of this I could give here, many years ago both my neighbour and I had near identical Greenhouses, one night of very high winds and his was just a pile of glass, the wind had entered the open door and had blown much of the glass outwards some landing a few feet away, where mine was completely intact, he had left the door open to his and my one had the door closed, likely even if he had closed the door to his the outcome may have been just the same, I had doubled up the amount of retaining clips to each pane of glass, I had been advised by a Glazier that had my neighbour taken out a few sheets of glass at the opposite end to his door this would have saved it.

It is widely accepted that the best design of Roof to withstand high winds is a Hipped Roof (the trusses done is steel with a tendency to have a little flex to them} a 30 degree slope is the optimum angle for this. Gabled Roofs (there is a lot of stress on the gable walls in high winds) and flat Roofs tends to be too rigid and these are the roofs most likely to blow off completely, a large high Roof is more likely to be damaged than a small low one, having looked at many Pics showing roofs suffering wind damage, often this damage is just a hole blown one one side of the Roof with a corresponding hole of the same size on the opposite side, it is rare for most roofs to be a complete write off as long as they are firmly fixed down to the walls of the house.

When I designed and installed my own roof back there in PH I did not know all of the above, it was only after I had finished it that I realised it was one very large structure much like a tall ship this would beat any Tea Clipper on the open sea, partly from a Aesthetic view being very symmetrical and also an engineering practicality, my Hipped roof is 20x10mtrs a perfect rectangle with a rake of 45 degrees, this is very well vented and having uPVC Roof sheets I would suggest it to be as cool as it can get in the attic space, it turned out to be not all that practical to work on and fit the roof sheets, it required double the manhours to fit the roof sheets each worker had to be roped to another for safety, had it been done at 30 degrees it would have been safe to walk on and be less expensive.

 

There is a fellow named Dennis, in Valencia, who had a house and apartment block built. I cannot remember his last name but if you examine his buildings you might change your mind. He is Dennis from South Carolina.

 

Hello Sir, I see you are a highly rated poster and I have read many of your postings, from what I recall I have had no reason to cross swords with you on any issue you have made comment on, but from what you have to say here suggests to me that you have never taken much of an interest in anything I have had to say regarding house building and construction in PH, in fact I doubt if it is a subject you have even made comment on here in DI? when you said these building were done with a US guy I immediately wrote them off, as the building codes there in US would not pass muster when compared with UK codes, one example would be their Plumbing codes of which there are two IPC and UPC and this all depends on which state one lives in, both these codes allow 3inch drains for sewage and half that size for the venting of them, perhaps Canada may have that same sh!t? where the UK standard is 4inch for both the vent and the drain.

Recently I made up a Hypothetical scenario in posting here and went on to suggest I could build two house that were identical and this would be the price of the shell only, I could do one at P20K per M2 and this would have high structural integrity, the other one can be done at half that price being P10K per M2 with low structural integrity and knock off 33% of the manhours in which to build the latter, once they both have the finished render applied how can you tell the difference in structural integrity when this is all hidden under the render, I'm sure if you had read this you may not have made the above suggestion to me??? So there you have it I could look at the buildings this Dennis has and not to see the faults that they are likely to have, these are not to be seen for another 20yrs when the cracks start to form?

Hoots Mon! Ma forefaithers wur building castles thit hiv bin staunding fur a thoosand years, whit dae they US Feckers ken aboot building I ask ye? they kin stick thur IPC's and UPC codes richt up thuir ain erse cos thur jist a load of sh!te onyweys.

 

Sorry if I came across as "crossing words" as it was not my intent.

You have mentioned that you live in Valencia and it was my intent to see if you were interested in a possible American friend, who also lives in Valencia, who is a brilliant and talented fellow that I thought you might get along with. You have expressed an interest in building and Dennis is the best I know in that area.

It appears you are not interested, so the usual advice is: If I am saying writing things you do not want to read then skip the post.

 

No Sir what you had to say to me was not offensive in any way, perhaps I was a bit heavy handed with you, likely you do not know the Scottish all that well? but I must admit to us having a quite brutal sense of humour.

As it happens I do know of a Dennis from US, that once lived in Valencia and still spends a lot of time there, this same Guy says he has a lot of Red Indian blood in him and would be entitled to certain benefits in US through his heritage? I believe he now lives some miles away perhaps in Tajay area, I also know this man had a foray into building using cheap and cheerful semi native methods with a mix of GI stud framing, describing this man I would say he is tall dark and handsome with a sallow skin and looks very fit, I believe he had spent much time in Nepal running up and down the mountain ranges there, I would bump into him from time to time at Joys Bamboo Café, or in the Plaza at Pacos Tacos or the Red Table next door, he never seems to take much Alcohol maybe just the odd Beer now and again, being a Drunken Master myself I do not understand this? he likes his Motorbikes which I believe he modifies himself, I have an idea his trade was in engineering? Yes this Dennis is an interesting guy with much to talk about. Knowing that we all live in such a small world it would not surprise me if this is the same Dennis you mention?