SA Roofing investigates revolutionised roof tiles and learns how this building material is garnering attention for its innovation and sustainability.
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Revving up roof tiles
SA Roofing investigates revolutionised roof tiles and learns how this building material is garnering attention for its innovation and sustainability.
By Candace Sofianos King
Pexels
Roof tiles are evolving with the times.
The design, application and maintenance of roof tiles have taken a significant turn in recent years thanks to new technology, innovative products and forward-thinking experts in the field.
The world finally got to see South African-born golden boy engineer Elon Musk’ s innovative solar roof tiles, which have been in the pipeline since 2016 when Musk’ s electric manufacturing company Tesla acquired SolarCity.
What makes these tiles so unique is that they look like traditional shingles and collect 98 % of the solar energy that traditional solar panels do. The tiles are required to look opaque from street level while remaining transparent to the sun. This was achieved by designing a special louvered glass, which functions in the same way as window blinds.
“ This is a connector that has to last for more than 30 years. It has to be weatherproof, heavy rain, snow, slush, salt, water leaking – it’ s like connector hell,” says Musk. Locally, these energy efficient solar roof tiles would work perfectly given South Africa’ s sunny weather.
On South African soil another ecofriendly roof tile invention has come to the fore – Thevia Roof Tiles are 100 % recyclable and have been designed to solve many of the problems of traditional roof tiles by producing a stronger product made only of waste materials. These tiles, which were awarded the 2016 California Green Building award, weigh just a quarter of traditional concrete tiles and are twice as strong.
A solid case for concrete
According to Bryan Perrie, managing director of The Concrete Institute( TCI), concrete roofs are highly practical in both urban and rural applications. Perrie highlights that concrete is increasingly becoming the roof covering material of choice for a wide variety of practical reasons.
Perrie says the development of hightech computer modelling systems – coupled with advances in concrete technology and waterproofing – have elevated roof design and construction far beyond previous limitations.
Perrie says for housing in both urban and rural locations, there has been a rapid growth in the specification and application of concrete roof tiles.“ There is a timeless aesthetic appeal in concrete roof tiles, and the installation process is relatively simple. It requires no additional finish, is labour-
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JULY 2018