January, 1915 
HOUSE AND GARDEN 
33 
Thatch is often used on modern houses in England with excellent results. When well laid it is no more inflammable 
than shingles and is impervious to the weather 
for shedding snow and pre¬ 
venting water from backing up 
and penetrating the cover at 
periods of rapid thaw. 
The covering materials that 
naturally suggest themselves 
for ridge roofs are shingles, 
slate, tile, composition slabs or 
tiles of various sorts, tin, lead, 
copper and thatch—a wide va¬ 
riety and susceptible of almost 
endless forms of treatment. 
The distinction between “roof” 
and “roof covering” should be 
borne in mind. The former is 
the supporting frame of timber 
or steel, whereas the function 
of the latter is to cover the structure in and protect it from the 
weather. Of the metal coverings, copper is the most durable, the 
lightest and the strongest. With a copper roof, because of its 
heat-conducting properties, there ought to be a layer of felt or 
some non-conducting material laid between the metal covering 
and the wooden sheathing underneath. The green carbonate that 
forms on the surface exposed to the weather is both a desirable 
decorative feature and a protection to the metal against further 
decomposition. Copper, of course, is exceedingly expensive and 
must be regarded as a luxury, but a more satisfactory roof, from 
many points of view, it would be hard to find. Owing to the 
variations in the price of copper it would be unwise and probably 
misleading to make any attempt at quoting approximate cost. 
Lead as a roof covering is not regarded with favor by roofers 
in America. They generally consider it impracticable in our 
climate, owing to its great expansion and failure to contract again 
to the same extent. There need be no such objection if the 
roofers would lay the sheets as they are customarily laid in 
England, where considerable play and movement is allowed for. 
A lead roof is both beautiful and durable, but must be regarded 
as a super-luxury, owing to its excessive cost, which presents the 
chief obstacle to its use. Tin, kept well painted, is fairly ser¬ 
viceable and light, though a radiator of intense heat both upward 
and downward in summer. 
Various composition tiles of different grades of excellence 
and different prices may also be used for roof coverings. For 
a roof with a pitch of even ordinary inclination, slag is not ad¬ 
visable, as the asphaltum binder melts and runs in the heat of 
our summers. Slag roofing ij 4 " thick costs 5 to 6 cents per 
square foot. 
'files are to be had in a variety of colors and shapes by different 
concerns, and are generally broadly classified as “shingle” or 
“Spanish.” Owing to the great diversity in their quality, the 
differences in their sources of manufacture, local labor conditions 
and sundry other factors, it is impossible to give more than a 
rough approximate cost estimate for ordinary guidance. Roughly 
speaking, it may be said that a “Spanish” tile roof covering will 
cost 30 to 35 cents per square foot, while a “shingle” tile cover¬ 
ing will cost 18 to 22 cents. Asbestos tile costs about the same 
amount as shingle tile. A tile-covered roof ought to have a pitch 
steep enough to shed rain rapidly and keep snow from lying on 
it. While tiles are sometimes fastened to battens laid directly on 
the rafters, it is best to use board sheathing and cover it with a 
layer of felt paper. It is almost impossible to make the tiles lie 
close enough on one another to prevent snow from blowing under¬ 
neath sometimes. The felt paper avoids leakage from this melted 
snow, which evaporates or runs off at the eaves. 
The same manner of laying, using sheathing and felt paper, 
An English house where the physical form of the roof line eliminated all but one type of material—heavy slates laid irregularly. As a study in the skyline of the house it 
presents some interesting points, a logical outcome of the rest of the structure 
