Roofing can be designed to be flat, cone shaped, heaped or pitched. The construction industry has evolved from the traditional roofing iron sheets to modern technology tiles. This can be the stone coated sheets, clay or concrete tiles, concrete and shingles. The different designs have also allowed used of integrated materials. This can be the use of timber as a decking, bitumen as an underlay and shingles as a cover. The timber can be tongue and groove or chipboards.
The timber roofing can be formed to have various aesthetic features. This range from concealed gutters to no fascia boards at the eaves. Wrought timber is used on the exposed eaves. The rafters are visible below the decking of boards or tongue and groove structure. The concealed gutters are fixed just before the eaves. They then have pipes for taking away water from the build fabric. The rafter ends are cut at ninety degrees instead of following the roof pitch angle.
The shingles roof construction commences after the ring beam. The wall plate is anchored to the beam with bolts or other suitable and approved method. After fixing the wall plate, the roof structure is done with rafters and struts to design. When complete, purlins are added across the rafters. The decking boards are then fixed onto the purlins. The rafters should be spaced at least by two feet and purlins by three feet. The boards are usually in four feet wide by eight feet long.
Once the whole roof is covered with boards, the last line of about two feet is left. This is the area for the exposed eaves that use tongue and groove decking. The deck is then covered with bitumen. This method allows the roof to have a show pitch without fear of leakage. The bitumen is laid with overlaps and a blow torch used to seal the joints. It is also done along chimneys or walls passing through the roof. Shingles are then laid on top of the bitumen. They laid with overlaps of about two inches.