Why A Flat Roof In The Desert

Roofs to beat the heat.

Why a flat roof in the desert.

Homeowners in extremely hot desert climates need a roof that will not absorb heat and draw it into the house. The adobe style or flat roofs complement the warm and dry and often windy arizona. Elements that affect desert homesdesert home roofs face some of the most challenging extremes of temperature wind sand low humidity and sunlight exposure. Flat roofs use the least roofing area while pitched roofs more than double the area of a flat roof.

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. Also the reduced surface area of the roof helps prevent the. From the initial building and installation to the materials most often used to cover the roof flat roofs are fairly cheap. Hurricane force winds like you ll encounter in florida can blow shingles off the roof but flat sheets of metal roofing have more wind resistance than most shingle roofing.

Flat or adobe style roofs are found mostly in the desert areas because they do not have to funnel snow ice and water off the roofs. While roofs in other climates must withstand seasonal extremes in the desert these extremes can be a daily phenomenon. The state also doesn t have to deal with the weight of ice and snow. Some observers suggest it s harder to replace a flat roof than a traditional pitched shingle roof because of the labor required to remove its layers especially on older flat roofs.

By far the biggest advantage of using a flat roof is the expense. Btw i often see people here get stressed over flat roofs and pointing out that the minimum normal pitch of 1 4 per foot is not flat. But now flat roofs often are constructed with fewer layers because of improved waterproofing technology. This could mean flat roofs may not raise the same red flags they used to.

In roofing terminology the definition of a flat roof is anything with a pitch of less than 2 12. Flat roofs are hard to replace. Roofs absorb heat during warm days heating the interior of homes as well.