On Sat, 18 Nov 2006 11:01:44 -0000, "Mary Fisher"
wrote:

"Andrew Gabriel" wrote in message
. ..
He's posting from the US.

And it's different there?

Most buildings, yes, roofs are asphalt shingles,
with a little glass fiber in them now that asbestos is
banned.
Most houses here have been built since WWII,
mostly to house all the people coming here from Europe. :-)

In the UK, roof life between significant maintenance events has
normally been around 70 years (so you've got 1 year to go Mary;-).

Ours hasn't needed any maintenence and my father back-pointed the (rosemary)
tiles when the house was new. Nothing has shifted - we keep an eye on it but
apart from a bit of flaunching round the chimney (not really the roof)
nothing needs doing.

If only the rest of the house were as good :-)
Mary

There are very few rosemary roofs here, and with
tile roofs, the construction would have to be much different,
at least double the wood in rafters, and maybe a lot of
shorter spans, plus better ties to keep the walls from
spreading under the load.

I just put a new roof on, but the insurance company
paid for it even though it was near it's life, the hail storm
in 2002 made a couple of holes in each span and saved
me $3000. Maybe you don't have hail storms,
tornados, hurricanes or earthquakes? ;-)

Joe Fischer