One of the things that most people ask me about when I show them my plans or tell them about my house is the flat roof. “Can you have a flat roof in Minnesota?” “Aren’t you worried about the weight of the snow and leaking?” Of course those all things that I thought about when we first looked at a flat roof as an option but they are also worries that I found are quickly put to rest with a little knowledge.

Snow obviously can add a lot of weight to the roof of your home in the winter time but a when you design a home with a flat roof it’s important to get a structural engineer involved to help calculate weight loads so the roof structure is properly sized to handle the additional weight snow poses. A flat roof is never actually truly flat but rather most often uses a system of tapered insulation to create a slight slope. Leaky roofs are more often the result of poor execution, design or materials rather than it is as a result of the style of the roof.

What you never seem to hear about flat roofs are all the great benefits they have over pitched roofs. Flat roofs are generally better insulated than pitched roofs which leads to reduced heating and cooling needs. Although they generally cost more to install they usually last much longer before needing to be replaced and can reduce your heating and cooling needs. Many flat roofs can be designed and engineered to incorporate green areas that reduce the over-all Carbon foot print of the home, as well as utilizing the space for functional or entertaining purposes. And if that doesn’t convince you than maybe this will — most insurance companies offer a discount on your rates if you have a flat roofs as they are less likely to suffer from wind or hail damage and often times more resistant to fire.

There are tons of varieties of flat or low sloped roofs to choose from. In our case we looked at several roofing options from ballasted (which uses gravel to hold down the roofing material to rubber membrane usually know as EPDM and CSPE, but ultimately we selected a PVC roofing material called Duro-Last which is made of a thermoplastic, reinforce membrane then custom cut to fit the size of each project. I love the idea that there are no job site seams which minimizes the risk for human error. As well the product comes in a white finish which works to reflect the heat of the summer sun vs. attracting and collecting it (like dark colored roofing materials), giving it the highest retained reflectivity of any single-ply membrane rated by the EPA’s ENERGY STAR® program. As well Duro-Last is can be  completely recyclable at the end of it’s life cycle which has earned it the U.S. Green Building Council seal of approval.

I contacted Duro-Last directly and they provided me with a list of certified installers in the area who were able to give me an estimate. Since most of this stuff is used in a commercial capacity this was one group of sub-contractors who were by no means puzzled by the modern nature of our house. We selected the Fridley Roofing Company to do the installation of our roof as they are among the top installers of Duro-Last roofing in the country and came on a good recommendation from the manufacturer. Now I’m getting excited to watch the installation of the roof and see the process in action.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 at 11:09 pm and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.