Antichcrimity: a plastic roof and a review of materials for it

Welcome to "All about the Roof," your one-stop shop for all things roofing-related. We explore the world of plastic roofing materials in this post and offer a thorough analysis of the choices you have for your upcoming project.

Plastic roofs are becoming more and more popular due to their affordability, resilience, and adaptability. Plastic has a number of advantages that make it an appealing option for any type of roofing, whether you’re thinking about replacing the roof on your house or looking into options for a commercial building. Plastic roofing is made to be weather resistant and lightweight, with the ability to endure changes in temperature without compromising its structural integrity.

There are a number of options available for selecting the ideal plastic material for your roof, each with special qualities of its own. Because of its remarkable clarity and impact resistance, polycarbonate is the perfect material for applications like greenhouse roofing where transparency is required. Contrarily, PVC (polyvinyl chloride) provides exceptional durability and chemical resistance, making it a good choice for industrial and commercial roofing applications.

Unplasticized polyvinyl chloride, or UPVC, is a viable option for residential projects since it offers the stability and insulating qualities of PVC along with additional benefits. These materials help control the temperature in your living area while also being aesthetically pleasing and energy-efficient.

At "All about the Roof," we recognize how crucial it is to select the ideal roofing material for your unique needs. Whether durability, environmental impact, or cost is your main concern, our in-depth analyses and product reviews will help you make an informed choice that satisfies your requirements and goes above and beyond.

Plastic for the roof: for and against

In actuality, the plastic roof is not unusual. A half-hour stroll through the city will show you dozens of these roofs. Simply put, you’re not going to notice them if you substitute polymeric materials for glass.

These include canopies and visors that cover above-ground transitions, bus stops, kiosks, and other structures with clear roofs. Naturally, some clear inserts are actually made of glass. However, they are dwindling in number as plastic for the roof outperforms glass in many ways.

The following are nine benefits of using any type of plastic roof:

1. Corrosion resistance. Unlike metal coatings, roofing plastic does not rust.
2. Fire safety. Combustible plastics have long been a thing of the past, modern materials do not burn and do not support combustion, they just melt.
3. Self -cleaning surface. The plastic panels for the roof are very smooth, so even a small bias is enough for the dirt to wash off from them every rain, and the snow slipping.
4. Light weight. On average, roofing plastic weighs only 1-2 kg per 1 m 2 .
5. Chemical resistance. The roofing material made of plastic is resistant to concentrated solutions of salts and many acids, and some species are also inert to alkalis and organic solvents.
6. Transparency. Not all, but many types of roofing plastics can pass up to 90% of sunlight, and this is their main difference from traditional roofing materials.
7. Ease of installation and processing. Plastic panels for the roof are cut with an ordinary hacksaw or grinder, they are elementarily attached, and one person is enough to work.
8. Good bearing ability. Roofing plastic is able to withstand hundreds of kilograms of distributed load, including snow.
9. Biological inertia. The fungus does not develop on plastic, lichens cannot live on it, as is the case on a slate or tile.

Plastic roofing materials are at least comparable to well-known coatings like metal tile, corrugated board, slate, and ondulin in terms of many operational qualities. And they even outperform them in certain properties.

Plastics are your only option if you need to make a transparent roof. With the obvious exception of triplex or hardened glass. Nevertheless, glass is far more costly, more durable, and more challenging to install.

However, the benefits of the plastic roof are not endless; otherwise, sales of these kinds of roofs would have skyrocketed. She is really flawed:

1. Low resistance to spot loads. Roofing plastic, with the exception of one species, does not hold a load well, for example, the weight of a person standing on it. Therefore, on plastic roof you can only move along transitional bridges and stairs.
2. Decrease in strength when the temperature decreases. Some types of roofing plastic become fragile already at -15 ° C. The temperature limit of the most persistent -50 ° C.
3. Flaw. Modern roof plastic for a long time retains color and transparency for a long time, but over time it is still covered with scratches and cloudy.
4. High temperature expansion coefficient. The dimensions of plastic panels for the roof change greatly depending on the temperature. This complicates the installation of some types of materials.
5. WITHrock service. Plastic roofs made of quality material will last ten years, but still it is much less than traditional ceramic tiles or copper. Corrugated board and metal -coating metal -coating are also often more durable than plastic.
6. The complexity of sealing. Due to the smoothness of the plastic, not only snow and dirt are poorly held on it, but also sealants with adhesive compounds. Therefore, the sealing of the junctions and places of pipe passage through the roof is a difficult task. Even with the correct implementation of all the manufacturer"s instructions, the probability of leaks in these nodes is maintained.
7. Destruction under the influence of ultraviolet rays. Low resistance to ultravioletus – the property of all types of plastic for the roof. The service life of a particular material directly depends on how high-quality he has a coating that protects from UV rays.

The range of tasks that plastic roofing coatings can be used for is significantly limited by these drawbacks.

"Antichcrimity: A Plastic Roof and a Review of Materials for It" highlights the advantages and variations of this creative use of plastic in roofing materials. This article explores the many applications for plastic roofing, going over the various materials—such as PVC and polycarbonate—and their benefits with regard to cost-effectiveness, durability, and insulation. Through an analysis of these materials, the article hopes to give builders and homeowners a thorough grasp of how plastic roofs can meet contemporary construction needs in a sustainable and effective manner, taking into account environmental factors and useful applications in a variety of climates.

For which buildings is a plastic roof suitable

In essence, a plastic roof is a feature of those buildings where the roof’s transparency matters:

• Car canopies, terraces, verandas;
• gazebos;
• greenhouses and winter gardens;
• galleries;
• pools and sports grounds;
• visors;
• greenhouses;
• Balconies.

While separate rooms with transparent roofs are occasionally constructed in cottages, individual elements such as anti-aircraft lanterns and translucent roof inserts that replace attic windows are more commonly discussed when discussing residential buildings.

The most common locations for Open’s plastic roof are hangars, warehouses, garages, residential buildings, and other structures where it’s crucial to stay within a strict budget when building.

Plastic roofing materials: review of the three main types

About a dozen different types of plastic can be used to make the roof, but three are most frequently used:

• polycarbonate;
• polyvinyl chloride (PVC);
• Composite plastic.

Nowadays, they are hardly used at all because popular acrylic, which is also organized, is far less effective than contemporary plastic roofing materials.

Polycarbonate

When it comes to strength, polycarbonate is unmatched among roofing plastics. When all else is equal, polycarbonate sheets have tens or even hundreds of times greater resistance to shock, point, and distributed loads than other materials.

This allowed for the development of an entire family of polycarbonate-based roofing plastic materials with various characteristics:

• monolithic polycarbonate;
• profiled polycarbonate;
• Cellular polycarbonate.

These polycarbonate varieties are all actively utilized as roofing materials. Furthermore, they hold 80–90% of this market collectively.

Monolithic polycarbonate: when hail and bullets do not care

The one notable exception to the general rule about the poor stability of roofing plastics under point loads is monolithic or continuous polycarbonate. This material is incredibly robust. So strong that he just cannot pass certain common tests. For instance, testing the strength of a charm without making a cut yields no results because the material is unbreakable. Multi-layer bulletproof glasses are made of monolithic polycarbonate, which can withstand a small-caliber bullet hit thanks to its thickness of 10 mm and above.

Monolithic polycarbonate is used as a plastic roofing material in the construction of responsible objects because of its remarkable strength. It is specifically used to glaze the arched and domed roofs of public and commercial buildings, markets, stations, airports, museums, and metro entrances. Monolithic polycarbonate is the only material strong enough to be used to make plastic sheets for private homes and enclosed verandas.

Besides having a high shock viscosity and strength, monolithic polycarbonate

• It holds heat well;
• can be operated at a temperature of -50 ° C to +120 ° C;
• It has sound -absorbing properties – the thicker, the better;
• It is easily bending during installation, which is important when arranging arched structures – a minimum radius of bending for thin sheets of 430 mm;
• It can be protected from ultraviolet radiation not by coating, but by adding a protective substance to the composition, while the combination of two protection methods increases at once the life of the material to 40-50 years.

When it comes to its functional qualities, monolithic polycarbonate generally lags well behind the other plastic roofing coatings. However, private construction rarely uses it due to:

1. High price. A sheet of monolithic polycarbonate 1 mm thick costs from 650 rubles per 1 m 2, and a thickness of 2 mm – from 800 rubles per 1 m 2 . The price of 1 m 2 for sheets of 10-12 mm starts from 4,000-4,500 rubles, which is 2-3 times more than the cost of a basic copper fold. And this is for Russian production material, imported monolithic polycarbonate is even more expensive.
2. Large weight of sheets of increased strength. With a thickness of 2 mm, a sheet of monolithic polycarbonate weighs only 2.4 kg/m 2, but with a thickness of 12 mm, its weight reaches 14.4 kg/m 2 . For comparison, the weight of the standard metal tile 0.5 mm does not exceed 5 kg.
3. Low stability to alkalis and aromatic hydrocarbons. Therefore, cleaning products must be selected carefully. And do not use polycarbonate near enterprises with alkaline emissions.
4. Frame installation. With the exception of narrow visors, which are often mounted on suspensions, about the fastening of monolithic polycarbonate, you need about the same frame frame as for glass. This complicates the installation and makes it much more expensive.
5. Combustion with drops. This is the property of all polycarbonates: under the influence of fire, the sheets melt, and the melt begins to drip down. If the fuel material, for example, a tree under polycarbonate, then when it gets hot drops, it will be ignited.

Put simply, monolithic polycarbonate is the only kind of plastic roofing for which hiring professionals is highly recommended. It is also not a material that is inexpensive to use. However, its roof is amazing and nearly identical to glass that costs far more.

Cellular polycarbonate: air and firmly

Cellular or cellular polycarbonate are made exactly from the same material as monolithic, but they are distinct materials nonetheless. And all because of the structural variations: while a cast sheet devoid of voids is one kind of material, a material with more air than polycarbonate is another.

The most basic form of cellular polycarbonate consists of two thin liners joined by partitions. The substance that emerges is made up of distinct rectangular cells. Thus, the moniker. The number of horizontal sheets and the cell structure become more complex as the cellular polycarbonate thickness increases—diagonal partitions start to show.

The distinctive qualities of cellular polycarbonate, a plastic roofing material, are provided by its cellular structure.

1. Low thermal conductivity. Heat transfer resistance allows him to effectively retain the heat indoors.
2. Minimum weight. With a sheet thickness of 4 mm weight 1 m 2 cellular polycarbonate less than a kilogram.
3. High shock strength. Even a thin sheet of 4 mm is able to absorb a blow to 21 N · m.
4. Very low price. Cellular polycarbonate – really cheap material. Its price starts only from 150 rubles per 1 m 2 .

Furthermore, cellular polycarbonate is flexible, thermally stable, and absorbs sounds up to 23 dB, just like monolithic. This is one of the best building materials because it is affordable, retains heat perfectly, and doesn’t negatively impact it when used to construct greenhouses and pool shelters.

Galleries, visors, and canopies are other common construction projects that employ cellular polycarbonate. However, even for these structures—not to mention the roofs of capital buildings—this is not a very successful decision.

The truth is that polycarbonate found in cells:

• Quickly ages -its service life usually does not exceed 10-15 years;
• It is strongly electrified and attracts dust;
• Even with maximum translucency of 88% Bloves the image due to refraction of light in cells;
• Cold in sealing: the hollow structure facilitates work with sheets, but to seal joints, you need to use special mounts that do not differ in high reliability;
• Easily polluted inside: a small enough defect in the installation is enough so that dirt gets inside the cells and microorganisms begin to develop.

Furthermore, when burning, cell material forms drops, just like with all polycarbonates, and is destroyed by alkalis and aromatic hydrocarbons.

In conclusion, low service life and an unappealing appearance are the drawbacks of cellular polycarbonate’s affordability, light weight, and energy efficiency.

Profiled polycarbonate: as corrugated board, only transparent

The goal of profiled polycarbonate is to transform an expensive and bulky monolithic material into a genuine roofing material that is easy to install, reasonably priced, lightweight, and has good bearing capacity. In order to accomplish this, polycarbonate is stretched through templates featuring a wave or trapezoid profile rather than being poured in the shape of plates. In this manner, stiffeners and molecules oriented in a single direction obtain the plastic for the roof.

This offers the content:

• High bearing capacity – profiled sheets withstand up to 350 kg/m 2 of the distributed load;
• Light weight – from 1.17 to 2.9 kg/m 2, depending on the thickness;
• shock viscosity – Profiled polycarbonate is difficult to break even with a strong blow;
• relatively low price – from 450 rubles per 1 m 2;
• compatibility with ondulin, slate and some speciescorrugated board, which allows you to make lighting inserts in the roof from profiled polycarbonate.

Furthermore, profiled polycarbonate is very easy to install, and because sheets are fastened with overlap, leaks are rare.

A great material for overlapping greenhouses, verandas, terraces, awnings, and arbors is profiled polycarbonate. It is used to create good "windows" for the roofs of hangars, warehouses, farms, and other industrial structures. However, unlike monolithic polycarbonate, profiled material is not appropriate for private home roofs. For three reasons:

• the possibility of damage with a severe blow (drop in an icicle or branch from a high height);
• low thermal insulation properties – such subtle material almost does not prevent heat loss;
• practically no noise suppresses.

With the exception of the first, these flaws are only significant in enclosed spaces. The medium-sized hail and a football or tennis ball won’t harm the material when they break through the impact. However, it is not worth it to install a profiled polycarbonate beneath the cornice overhang, where icicles may form.

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC)

PVC roof panels, in contrast to polycarbonate, are only profiled; it is challenging to provide the required strength and rigidity in this material in any other way. This kind of roof plastic is typically translucent to some extent, but it is also tightly painted in large quantities of sheets, mostly made in China.

Every roofing material used on a PVC roof can be arranged either once in two directions or along a single axis. Extruded materials for single axles are pulled exclusively in one direction. Dioxide, respectively, simultaneously in both, enabling the formation of a more robust lattice structure.

Although they have a relatively small strength, the great majority of PVC panels for the roof are oriented along one axis, and they have numerous advantages:

1. Ease: PVC plastic for the roof weighs less than 2 kg per 1 m 2 .
2. Sustainability not only to acids and solutions of salts, but also to alkalis, alcohols, aromatic hydrocarbons.
3. Resistance to ultraviolet, Since the protective layer is applied by the coextrus, that is, it becomes part of the sheet.
4. Melting without the formation of drops – Under the influence of open fire, PVC sheets simply turn off.
5. Low price: from 450 rubles per 1 m 2 for transparent materials and from 300-350 rubles per 1 m 2 for painted.

Single-axle PVC panels are typically used to block sheds, household blocks, temporary structures, and other small buildings. More substantial objects, such as barns and warehouses with large roof areas, should avoid having their roofs made of this kind of plastic. PVC Unine:

1. Keeps the shock load poorly, Therefore, this roofing material can break through even a medium -sized hail through.
2. Fragile at low temperatures. Manufacturers often write that the material can be used up to -30 ° C or -40 ° C. But in reality, with a decrease in temperature to -15 ° C, ordinary PVCs are destroyed even from the average blow.
3. It is poorly held by heat And suppresses noise.

PVC sheets are made quite thick and resemble slate. They are frequently painted in large quantities. They seem sturdy and dependable as a result. This gives the false impression that the roofing material will last longer than ten years.

In contrast to the same axle, dioxide PVC has a lower bearing capacity than profiled polycarbonate, but it can still compete with it in terms of shock strength. However, because this technology is patented, only French company ONDEX makes this kind of material globally.

In addition to being more elastic, double PVC ages more gradually while preserving transparency. There are items in France that were covered in Ondex sheets forty to fifty years ago, and it seems that this is not the limit.

In general, profiled polycarbonate and PVC ONDEX are about equal options if you need plastic panels for the roof of a canopy, arbor, or veranda. Thus, the cost of the materials is typically taken into consideration when making a decision.

Composite materials

This entire bush contains somewhat uncommon plastic roofing materials. This group consists of:

• Plastic for a roof based on fiberglass and fiberglass;
• multilayer plastic materials;
• Combinations of plastic and metal or glass.

Their properties are obviously very different as well, because the composite plastics used for the roof are heterogeneous. However, this class of roofing materials shares a number of characteristics in common:

• good bearing capacity and shock strength;
• relative durability due to protection against ultraviolet radiation in the mass;
• rigidity;
• opacity.

On the other hand, because of their intricate manufacturing processes, composite plastics are typically costly. As a result, the quality of these materials can vary greatly between manufacturers and even between parties. Since composite roofing materials are specialized coatings intended for roofing in an aggressive environment, using them in private construction makes little sense. For instance, they construct cowshed roofs.

Furthermore, composite materials are a good choice for anti-vandal structures because they can typically be cleaned with solvents, which sets them apart from polycarbonate.

For any homeowner, selecting the appropriate roofing material is essential, and there are various options to take into account when it comes to plastic roofs. Every material has pros and cons of its own, so it’s critical to match your selection to the particular requirements of your house.

Because of their strength and resilience to impact, polycarbonate roofs are a popular option. They are perfect for locations that frequently experience extreme weather because they provide good protection against UV rays and inclement weather. Additionally, because they are lightweight, installation is simpler and more affordable.

Conversely, PVC (polyvinyl chloride) roofs are prized for being reasonably priced and adaptable. Because of their exceptional chemical resistance, they can be used in settings where exposure to corrosive materials is a risk. Another benefit of PVC roofing is their energy efficiency, which lowers heating and cooling expenses for homeowners.

Considerations like climate, financial constraints, and aesthetic preferences should all be taken into account when thinking about a plastic roof. Every material has special advantages that can improve your home’s comfort, toughness, and energy efficiency. Homeowners can choose the roofing solution that best suits their needs by being aware of their options.

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