The Green, light roof tile

The way we build in South Africa is in large part due to how a building copes with the burden of an extremely heavy roof. Traditional weighty roofing materials such as concrete, slate and clay tiles dictate considerable capacity in foundations, pillars, beams and roof structure simply to cope with the load of the roof. Harvey EcoTile® changes all this with a lightweight mineral composite roof tile.

What happens if the roof is much lighter? At 1.35kg per tile, a Harvey EcoTile’s® weight is 25% of a comparable concrete tile of 5.5kg. This affects the design in numerous ways.

Roof structure

Compared to other heavy roof tiles, a roof structure designed for lightweight Harvey EcoTile® requires considerably less timber with resultant cost savings.

Foundations

Saving weight on both the roof covering and structure reduces the burden on foundations. The building can be designed from the ground up with a new perspective.

Transportation costs

Weight equals transportation cost. Imagine the ability to transport 75%  more material to site. With the resultant savings on trips, fuel and handling, a Harvey EcoTile® roof adds value and savings to every build’s logistics and saves on breakages as it is virtually unbreakable in normal handling.

Water/mass benefit

High water absorption culminates in added mass to the entire structure. Concrete roof tiles can absorb between 6 to 10% of their mass in water. Thus per m2 weight added for a concrete tile of 5.5kg (6% absorption) equals 3.4 kg or litre/m2. In comparison Harvey EcoTile’s ® water absorption is less than 0.36%, which translates to a maximum of 0.05kg/m2.

Lightweight design. Heavyweight strength.

Being a lightweight product does not compromise Harvey EcoTile’s® strength credentials. The secret lies the material composition and design of its fixing methodology which results in a roof being a single impregnable unit. An advance engineered product results in an interlocking  system for weather proofing and superior strength. It displays symmetrical lines once installed and means a complete roof will be weather, water and dust proof as all gaps are eliminated.

Syndicated content from Leading Architecture & Design

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