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Interesting Advancements In Flat Roofing

While maintaining a home or building it is important to keep up with all of the pieces of the structure to make sure that there is no deterioration of the materials. Once the materials that hold the structure together start to go, the risk of potentially damaging the property permanently, or beyond repair, increases as there is no protection provided from the roofing material.

One of the main elements of a structure that is imperative to maintain to ensure the protection of a building is the roof. If the integrity of a roof is compromised, then there are huge risks involved. The risks include the safety of the individuals inside the structure, permanent water or structural damage to other supporting parts of the building, and loss or damage of personal items inside the building. So how does one make sure that he or she is protecting the future of his or her building in regards to roofing?

The first image that pops in to a person’s head when considering roofing is the traditional hot tar and shingles roofing solution. This method has been around forever, and is actually a relatively dangerous procedure for people to implement on the roof of a home. Not only is the contractor balancing up on a roof; however, there is a lot of small integral parts that have to be picked up, moved around, and carefully adhered with hot tar. There are risks with personal injury due to hot tar if it comes in contact with your body, and any of the clothes that are worn during the application process are more than likely going to be trash because, unlike a stain, the hot tar will not come out of contact with clothes. The adhering power is what makes the hot tar desirable; however, the risks involved are what spurred people to consider other options.

Approximately thirty years ago, contractors began experimenting with a new option for flat roofing. They desired to make the process equally or more reliable with fewer risks to the person sealing the roof of the property. This new process is called Single-Ply Roofing. Single-ply roofing is much different than the former methods of sealing the roof of a property.

There is still a need to heat up and weld the material to the rook; however, you are welding a large sheet to the roof with direct heating and pressure on the material to the roof. This is different from hot tar because the hot tar has to be hot already and you handle to tar with an instrument and potentially risk dripping it in places you would rather not. The materials used for single-ply roofing created a “rubber roof” effect that literally seals up the structure the way that you seal a Tupperware bin to secure the items inside.

The greatest qualm that investors had with this product was the price in comparison to the hot tar method. However, with the price of oil and oil related products increasing over the years, so has the price of hot tar. The prices of both methods are comparable and the single-ply roofing method is easier, safer, and lasts longer. The industry predicts that single-ply roofing is the future of secure roofing practices.

Over the years, roofing has tested various methods of sealing a property; however, it looks like the trend is moving toward single-ply roofing.

 

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