The company has already kicked off SIG Design & Technology’s top ten roofing design blog posts with numbers ten to six. Here are the top five most read roofing design blog posts from 2015 – is your favourite at the top?
5. Fixing Solar Panels to Flat Roofs – why SIG recommend an Engineered Solution
Back in May SIG wrote this post about a common problem we come across with roof-mounted solar PV arrays – the tendency of installers to want to use a simple mechanical fixing. The problem with batten fixings, or even bodged up metal ones, is that you can’t install them reliably, they have a short lifespan, and whilst the solution might be cheap in the short term, the building owner is going to pay in the longer term with replacements, not to mention the damage such fixings can do to your membrane roof.
In this post SIG introduce two engineered solutions for mechanically fixing solar PV arrays, set out their benefits and provide additional information about where you can find out more.
4. Zinc Shingles on a unique Cliff House in Salobrena
Given that this post has only been up for 8 weeks now, it’s done very well to reach so high in the rankings. But it isn’t surprising when you check out the incredible wavy roof of this amazing house, built into the cliff face in Salobrena, Grenada, Spain.
The shingles are made by SIG’s partners elZinc and applied to an insitu concrete roof designed by Architect Jaime Bartolome. Visit the post to see more amazing photographs and follow links to construction images and more information about elZinc and shingles. You know you want to!
3. How much will a Green Roof weigh?
One of SIG’s very popular comparison table posts, updated for 2015. They’re often asked about the weight of a green roof, because it’s one of a number of factors specifiers need to consider when deciding which roofing system to use.
To help you compare the options, SIG produced a table that of the different types of green roofs they provide, including information about applications, planting options, heights, weights, maintenance and irregation. View the post and download the comparison table, alongside loads of other useful information about green roofs.
2. How much will a Zinc Roof Cost?
Surprisingly, Zinc roofing doesn’t take the top spot in this year’s countdown, but it does get the second spot. The cost of zinc roofing is a perennial topic of interest for specifiers, and SIG like to help specifiers choose the products that meet their clients’ cost needs as well as aesthetic ones, which probably explains why this post was so popular this year.
The cost of zinc roofing isn’t just in the material of course, there is also the cost of fabrication, cost of installation, and ideally the whole life cost of the zinc roofing or cladding to consider. In this post SIG explore these issues in detail and provide more information about the types of metal roofing and cladding available.
So without further ado, here’s the number one:
1. Re Roofing in Action – Replacing a Supermarket Flat Roof in 3 minutes [Video]
In the three years since SIG have been blogging on this roofing design blog, this is the first year that the winner of their annual Countdown hasn’t been a metal roofing post! The winning blog post is a time lapse video recording of the replacement of the flat roof at this Waitrose distribution centre in Aylesford, Kent.
Single ply roofs are lightweight, flexible, cost effective, swift to install and safe, which makes them increasingly popular for both new build and refurbishment projects. It’s not surprising that they are installed on many thousands of buildings across the UK every year, including large distribution centres like this one but also residential, commercial, leisure projects and even one-off housing.
SIG Design & Technology takes the risk out of roof design, offering a genuinely independent choice of waterproofing for flat, green, zinc and copper roofs. Designs are covered by our PI insurance and we’re part of SIG plc, a FTSE250 company. Our blog at www.singleply.co.uk/blog explores some of your common problems in roof design and system choice, or book our new RIBA CPDs, ‘A Structured Approach to Roof Specification & Design’ and ‘Specifying Hard Metals: Choosing the Right Product for the Project’.