History Of Roofing

Roof materials at the dawn of civilization.

History of roofing.

In 100 bc romans introduced a variety of slate and tile based roofs usually over open air homes and amphitheaters. It s easy to assume that early man slept out in the open under the stars or was protected from the elements inside a cave. A roof is the top covering of a building including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights providing protection against rain snow sunlight extremes of temperature and wind. Those materials have a long history and their evolution has been largely driven by performance.

Roofing has a long and interesting history which has led us to our great selection of roofing material choices and styles today. Copper in architecture in the 3rd century b c copper roof shingles were installed atop the lovamahapaya temple in sri lanka. Here s a quick look at some of that history. Clay has been widely used throughout human history for various purposes starting from pottery to roofing tiles.

That s a long time ago. Industrial production of clay roofing tiles began in the 19 th century. In the early 1970 s germany began developing and marketing the first green roof systems. One hundred years later concrete roof tiles were first used when first introduced in the early 1900 s the practice was to add a pigment to resemble clay roofing tiles.

Roofing has its earliest roots traced back to siberia in 40 000 bc. Copper has played a significant role in architecture for thousands of years see. Wood and slate shingles and clay tiles were the predominant roofing choice until the mid 19th century when metal and bituminous roofing systems made low slope applications possible. The new shingles were the first in the industry to pass two key wind uplift tests and a new long term performance test.

Let s look at how roofing evolved. On a branch of the cincinnati northern railway some thirty miles to the northeast of cincinnati is found the quaint old village of germantown which the records seem to indicate as the site of the first roofing tile. From that period onwards clay roofing tiles became the synonym for roofing all around asia. The romans used copper as roof covering for the pantheon in 27 b c.

During the repair work useful evidence might unexpectedly appear. The characteristics of a roof are dependent upon the purpose of the building that it covers the available roofing. It is helpful to establish a sequence of construction history for the roof and roofing materials. The use of clay roofing tiles has been seen dated as far back as 10 000 bc in many parts of china.

A brief history of roofing. A roof is part of the building envelope. Taking up the history of roofing tile in ohio it has been found a problem of less magnitude to trace their development.