Sachin

The rise of self-building and more involved home-owners and developers has given Britons more say in the homes they build, whether for their own family to live in or for investment.

Professional landlords, self-builders and developers alike are taking control of their builds, and choosing architects and contractors who are open to collaboration. This is good for those of us who know what we want, but has had the unexpected side effect of being good for Britain’s architecture, too!

The boom in house-building in the ‘90s led to a lot of uninspired modern estates where the fixtures and fittings and even the design was functional, standard, ‘builder-grade’. More involved individual clients put pressure on architects to design unusual and individual buildings and on contractors to fulfill their design, even when that means doing things differently.

Better roofing

It has also led to the rise of sustainable and eco-homes, unusual shapes, colours and sites, and trends in building, leading architects to specify non-standard materials. Metal roofs, particularly zinc and copper, are among the non-traditional materials whose popularity has skyrocketed over the last few years, with self-builders noticing them on new commercial and industrial buildings and borrowing their style for house and apartments. But why are zinc and copper such popular choices?

Better looking

The first reason is simple: aesthetics. A real metal roof has a spectacular lustre which lasts, and is available in a wealth of unusual shades and finishes, both powder-coated and untreated, modern and traditional. Recent developments have allowed manufacturers to treat zinc ahead of time, so instead of waiting for a patina to develop builders can choose ‘pre-patinated’ treated metal which will age predictably into the desired hue and finish in slates, stripes, fish-scales or grooves.

It can be used to bring out the warmth of brick or the brightness of verdant greenery, can have enough of a shine to catch the light and change colour with the sky, and is easy to form into striking and unusual shapes, with crisp, clean lines which photograph spectacularly and bring out the very best in the design of a building.

Easy does it

The second reason is practicality: zinc is easy for contractors to work with. As a thin and malleable materials which is easy to maintain and can tolerate almost any pitch, it has become the ‘go-to’ material for daring and unusual designs: it can be easily formed into any angle without cracking, crazing or wastage, and will also naturally adapt to follow a sinuous curve without complex measurement and machining. It can also be used on the face of a building as a fascia, and in commercial cases on the entire build or ‘envelope’.

Another practical reason to use zinc is its lifespan. Patinated zinc is a long-lived and inert material which can last up to a century without becoming damaged or failing. It is almost entirely weatherproof- certainly within the bounds of the UK weather- is not damaged by sunlight, and is resistant to corrosion by animal or vegetable matter, heat and cold, standing water, frost and even acid rain.

For more info visit the Peters Roofing website to read about roofing solutions.