Ruberoid is a very popular and cheap roofing material for roofs of garages, outbuildings and similar buildings. This material is indispensable for repairing roofs with a small angle of inclination, where other coatings cannot provide adequate waterproofing. In addition, any smart beginner builder can figure out how to cover the roof with a roofing material with his own hands.
What is roofing material and how to choose the right brand?
Ruberoid, in the traditional, familiar sense of the word, is a dense cardboard in rolls, impregnated with bitumen impregnation, and having a dense top layer. Modern variations of this material suggest not a wooden (cardboard), but a dense fiberglass base that provides increased strength and water resistance.
In addition to the above options, there is also a euro-roofing material with an additional polymer layer, melting under the influence of high temperature, which allows you to do your own installation of roofing material on the base without using mastic.
Ruberoid coating consists of several layers: the lower layer acts as a lining, and the upper layer is a protective one. In addition, the top layer of this material has a sprinkling, on the size of the fractions of which its resistance to damage depends (the coarse-grained type can function normally for a long time without repair).
When choosing roofing material it is worth focusing on its technical parameters and purpose, indicated by alphanumeric symbols:
- The first letter "P" is the name of the material;
- The second letter “P” is lining, or “K” is roofing;
- The third letter in the marking indicates the nature of the upper layer: “M” and “K” are fine-grained and coarse-grained, the letters “Ch” and “P” denote the scaly and dusty textures of the upper layer.
The numbers in the marking are the density values given in grams per square meter.
Material consumption and the required number of layers of roofing material
To find out the optimal number of layers of roofing material for reliable repair of the roof, you need to know its inclination angle, degree of load (snow load, regular movement of people on the roof) and the level of reliability of the roof (can the roof withstand the weight of several layers of roofing material and mastic). The greater the angle of inclination of the roof, the less layers will need to be laid to ensure good waterproofness:
- Flat roofs having an angle of inclination of up to 3 degrees need 3-4 layers.
- If the angle of the roof is up to 6 degrees, 3 layers are enough: a roof and two underlays.
- When the angle of inclination is from 6 to 15 degrees, two layers of coating are enough.
- With a slope of more than 15 degrees, ruberoid coating is used extremely rarely, much more often preference is given to ondulin, slate and corrugated board.
In addition, when buying material with your own hands, be sure to take into account the overlap and the spare tire for marriage during installation. The calculated amount of roofing material for repair is only rounded up.
Mastic for fastening roofing material
When installing roofing material to the roof, a special cold or hot bitumen mastic is used. The surfaced euroroofing material, in turn, does not need mastic, because it already has an adhesive layer.
At first glance, cold mastic is an ideal, easy-to-use option that is thoroughly mixed and now it is ready for use. However, cold mastic does not make the coating strong enough and dries for a long time, which brings developers back to the good old mastic.
Hot mastic has been preparing for the installation procedure for roofing material for a rather long time. Pieces of hard bitumen (in this form they are sold in the store) must be melted to a viscous consistency and add filler. The mastic is usually heated in barrels, buckets or special boilers with an open flame or blowtorch. A sign of the readiness of the mastic is the appearance of foam and small bubbles (this occurs when it is heated to 150-200 degrees).
After boiling, the foam is removed from the mastic, filler is added: sand, peat or fiber (about a quarter of the total volume), and thoroughly mixed. Mastic is applied to the roof directly in hot form.
Foundation preparation
Before applying the mastic, the base must be leveled and dried. In addition, before the installation of roofing material was done only on resin, or the repair was limited to the fact that the roof was simply flooded with resin without any further installation. The roof, flooded with resin, very quickly begins to become cracked and leaking. If a new one is poured over the old resin, this will further increase the humidity of the roof.
The same effect will be obtained by coating the old resin with roofing material. That is why it is important to bring down all the old resin with your own hands to the level of screed or reinforced concrete floor. If the coating is uneven - you can make a leveling screed.
After the peeled base dries, mastic can be applied to it. After application, it is worth waiting for the time indicated on the packaging of bitumen in order to allow the mastic to seize.
Roofing material is not laid in wet or rainy weather, in which case it is better to postpone construction until dry days.
Roofing technology of roofing material
Before starting work, it is worth making sure that all the necessary materials are available:
- ruberoid rolls;
- cold or hot mastic;
- metal strip with dowels (if there is a need).
The material spreads in 2 or more layers, and the roof must be covered from the lowest position, so that the upper layer of material overlaps with respect to the lower one. The main thing is that the joints of the upper and lower layers should not be directly above each other after laying, otherwise water will very quickly penetrate the seams between the rolls and the roof and need to be repaired again.
This method of installation well prevents the penetration of water into the joints between the rolls.
To speed up the process, it is better to cut the sheets of roofing material in advance with your own hands. Prepare all the necessary pieces and roll them into rolls. In the process of unwinding the rolls, you need to carefully monitor that the roofing material lies clearly along the intended border, and does not move to the side. After rolling, you need to warm up the sheets of roofing material together with mastic. You need to warm up until the protective film on the roofing material whitens. After that, you can begin the process of gluing roofing material on the base and rolling with a special roller.
Installation of the next layer of roofing material can be done only after the previous layer has finally glued and cooled.
At the exit points of the ventilation pipe and at the end of the roof, the material must be glued especially carefully, because in these places it peels off and breaks off by wind currents most often.
Properly laid roofing material can, subject to proper care and timely cleaning of the roof from debris and snow masses, last you more than 20-25 years. In addition, the repair or replacement of individual damaged sections of the roof can be easily done with your own hands, which will save you a significant amount, not to mention the overall economy of this roofing.