There are several benefits of using a tin roof. Tin is a very environmentally-friendly metal. Tin roofing is far cheaper compared to any other metal roofing materials. Many people avoid installing a tin roof as they believe it can make a lot of noise during the rains. However, the fact is that the tin roof is installed on a plywood and roofing felt, which suppress any sound on the roof to a great extent. It is not affected by any kind of corrosion due to water and salt. Once you have installed a tin roof, it can last for almost four to five decades.
Tin Roof Installation: Preparation
Before you start the installation work, the first thing you need to do is to check out the quantity of tin roofing material required for this project. Thus, take the measurement of the length, breadth and height of each side of the roof. When you show these measures to any roofing supply company of your locality, they will be able to calculate the exact quantity of roofing material required by you and supply tin sheets accordingly. For the preparation of the roof surface, you have to remove all the old roofing shingles and any other kind of roofing materials. Inspect the roof carefully to find out if there is any roofing nails. Then, clean the roof and make it free from all sorts of debris and make it ready for the installation work.
Tin Roof Installation: Setting up the Base
Once the roof is cleaned, the next thing you must do is to prepare the right base for the tin roof. For this, install sheets of roofing felt to cover the entire roof surface. To ensure that there is no open space between two sheets of roofing felt, overlap each sheet with its adjacent sheet. To fix up the roofing felt sheet, use button cap nails. As the head of these nails are broad, the sheet will not get torn out. Roofing felt acts as a sound barrier and helps to keep the noise of rains to a minimum level. Another advantage is that it prevents all kinds of bugs and insects from entering the home. After the roofing felt is fixed, lay slat boards upon them. These boards are mainly made of pine wood and are available in measures of 1 by 4 inches. Start laying them lengthwise from the bottom of the roof at a gap of 2 feet and fix them up with extra long screws. It enhances the strength and firmness to the structure of the roof and at the same time, facilitates better ventilation of the roof underlying the metal surface. Due to these boards the task of fixing up the tin roof becomes much easier.
Tin Roof Installation: Laying the Tin Roofing
The tin roofing material is in the form of rolls. In order to minimize the number of joints on the tin roofing you should keep each strip of tin very lengthy. Divide the roof according to the way you can lay the straight piece strips and mark each section where panels has to be laid with straight lines. The straight lines drawn in this manner, will be helpful in keeping the sheets of tin straight. Cut out the tin panels from the roll, using tin snips. Start the installation work from the left side of the roof. Fix up the metal with the base surface using nails and hammer. Hammer one nail at a distance of one foot. Once you have secured one sheet of tin tightly, only then move on to the next sheet. Sheets of tin roofing should be laid in a manner such that the two adjacent panels should overlap each other. Finally, when the installation of tin roof is complete, all the overlapping joints should be sealed with the roofing cement, so that water or small insects do not get an entry through the tiny openings.
Now that you have read the article, hope you have got a clear idea on how to install a tin roof. One word of caution, tin roofs can get corroded if exposed to acid rain. If your house is located near any industrial park where there is probability of acid rain, it is advisable to call off the plans of tin roof installation.
