Why Are Rocks Put On Flat Roofs

Pebbles or small rocks spread several inches thick over the outer roof mem.

Why are rocks put on flat roofs.

For mineral based felting the pebbles are there to help protect the felting as ballast depending on the fitting type and to help prevent water pooling aparantly. A flat roof is a roof which is almost level in contrast to the many types of sloped roofs the slope of a roof is properly known as its pitch and flat roofs have up to approximately 10. The easiest roof to build would be a lean to roof. On more expensive mebrane rooves you dont need pebbles.

Membrane roofs are attached in a variety of ways. This appears to be a form of roof ballast. There are no angles ridges or gables to deal with. The weight provided by the gravel is used to anchor down the roof materials therefore using far fewer fasteners to hold the materials to the decking.

Simply put it is a flat roof with a slight pitch so water can run off it. Admittedly one that i have not seen but i haven t been in the desert since i was a kid. You can still find houses here in the city with rock roofs. A flat roof will have several layers of a thin membrane made of tar asphalt and or bitumen material.

Talk to ten roofing contractors and you ll get ten answers on what the gravel is for but this seems to be the consensus. Both factors can extend the life of your flat roof. They can be partially loose laid and held down with river rock ballast requires roof structure to support the weight or fully adhered to the roof deck. The membrane is.

Rocks are placed on commercial flat roofs for many different reasons if the roof is what is called a ballast roof it is not fastened or adhered down throughout the whole roof. Having a large flat roof this is something that i pondered on too. March 11th 2010 at 2 41 pm. Flat roofs are an ancient form mostly used in arid climates and allow the roof space to be used as a living space or a living roof flat roofs or low slope roofs are also commonly found on commercial.

Personally i dislike them. We had to replace a big portion of our flat roof recently. Epdm and neoprene roof seams are fastened by adhesive and pvc roof seams are heat or solvent welded. Specifically there are two main reasons to use a ballasted roof system.

Tar has a low melting point.