Sea Grape Roofing

Why roofs fail

Gravel over the flat roofs, barrel tile next door, and salt in the air over both of them.

Two kinds of roof on one street, failing two different ways. Gravel hides its trouble; tile hides it underneath. Two entirely different kinds of roof, one set of weak points.
Garage Point 1: ridge caps 1 Ridge caps: full sun, no shade, ever Point 2: the field of the roof 2 The field: shingle, or tile on felt Point 3: valleys 3 Valleys: one line, this much rain Point 4: flashing 4 Flashing: salt reaches metal Point 5: vent boot 5 Vent boot Point 6: eaves and the screened room 6 Eaves: where the Florida room ties in
  1. 1 Ridge caps. The ridge is first to bake, first to lift.
  2. 2 The field. Barrel tile or shingle, over an underlayment quietly doing the work.
  3. 3 Valleys. One line carrying what two slopes shed, at the pace this coast rains.
  4. 4 Flashing. Where salt reaches the metal years ahead of the covering it protects.
  5. 5 The vent boot. A rubber collar that hardens, cracks, and lets the rain straight in.
  6. 6 Eaves. Where the screen enclosure meets the roof, and where fasteners give up.

The six

Salt, sun and the boom years

Whole neighborhoods built with genuinely flat, gravel-surfaced roofs. Barrel and concrete tile whose membrane retires decades before the shell. Salt air threading the canals into the eastern cities and finishing the metal first. Black algae feeding on shaded slopes. Boom-era attics ventilated to the minimum of their day. And in the green towns, canopy that sheds into the valleys twelve months a year. Gravel or tile, the failure is underneath either one.

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