Roofing Materials Of The Future
Types of roofing materials today are fiberglass, wooden shingles, aluminum and tiles. You might even find some in tar or rubber. People today aim to live greener and they want to find roofing materials that require less maintenance and upkeep. Metal roofing materials can be rather expensive and require professional installation, but gaining in popularity for their longevity, fire resistance, lightweight and reflection of the sun, which can help lower summer cooling bills. Although a metal roof sheet will often require professional installation, they’re still easier and quicker to install than traditional roofs, with aluminum and steel the most common roofing materials types used.
A roofing mega-trend estimated a huge success
When it comes to roofing materials South Africa, construction using textiles is one of the oldest architectonic forms in human history. Today, quality textile roofing constructions are an indispensable element of modern architecture, representing a large and special challenge to engineers as well as related textile production sectors. To collaborate the producing of a modern membrane roof for a sports stadium, the involved parties are the fiber producer, yarn producer, weaver, the finisher, the fabricator, the contractor as well as the stadium owner. The challenge here is informing all participating parties of the possibilities of industrial fabrics. Since the mid-1960s, industrial fabrics have made rapid advances with the use of fabrics, knits or non-woven’s instead of classic building materials. In Germany for instance, the technical textiles share of total textile sales already stand over 40 percent.
This mega-trend of the future offers much more flexibility in the design, construction and shape of a stadium or other roof when a textile product is used instead of heavy concrete and steel, with endless possibilities for membranes which include carports, garages, gas stations, airports; sport stadiums; buildings, amongst many others.
Fiberglass fabric roofing materials architectural and engineering wonder
A famous stadium is the fifty thousand seat Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa, which was built for 2010 FIFA World Cup. The roof manufacturer supplied some 230,000 square feet of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE)-coated fiberglass fabric membrane, and its cable system forms like a valley that helps drain rainwater from the roof as well as protect spectators from the elements. There are 36 aluminum-clad cantilevering trusses that measure 150 feet in length and weigh 60 metric tons each supporting the edges of the membrane panels.
With low cost residential schemes in countries like South Africa, advanced roofing materials are environmentally friendly and disaster resistance. Normally an average neighborhood roof is built from rafters, trusses, sheathing, tar paper and shingles. Under high winds, these materials easily peel off, which can lead to structural collapse. These houses deconstruct in high velocity winds due to pressure drop. To address this problem, the idea has been conceived by professional teams to replace the individual roofing components with monolithic panels that act as one large structural unit and which expands in high winds. The supplier calls it a sandwich structure as the outer layers are made from recycled paper infused with a resin made from thin, high-performance composites. The interior layer consists of synthetic based foam core, which offers insulation. The sandwich structure is bonded with bio-resins that serve as an impermeable weather coating, providing superior structural integrity and improved disaster protection, preventing the roof from degrading. This all-natural composite roof system works together with the floor and the walls to transfer the load coming at it from the weather to preserve the whole structure and reduce loss of life and property damage from hurricanes and earthquakes. The soy-based natural-fiber composites are environmentally friendly and much cheaper relative to petroleum-based composites. The resins come from the soybean, and the natural fibers are by products of seasonal crops that otherwise would become waste.
Way to go
These roofing materials prices are low in cost, energy efficient, made from renewable resources and contain fabulous engineering properties that impart disaster resistance in an environmentally friendly way. From a global warming perspective, the hurricane-resistant designs are highly energy efficient and if you combine them with solar energy, could make an important contribution to our global energy because it is made with bio-based materials.
