Roof Tiles or Colorbond?

dreamhome · Apr 18, 2008 12:21 pm

Hi everyone,

I am new to this website and find it fantastic!
While browsing through the forum, i realised that there were so many things i had to discuss with my builder, things i did not even think of before reading it on the forum. Thanks everyone for sharing.

DH and i are building our first home with M, so far we have only paid a deposit for the house we wanted (as it has been discontinued and we had to put down a deposit if we wanted that house as opposed to the new one replacing it). We have been given lots of documentation and it is overwhelming.

Does anyone have any advice when it comes to the roof? What's best roof tiles or colorbond? Advantages/Disadvanges? And which supplier to use?

Thanks all,
Ann

stonecutter1309 · Apr 18, 2008 12:41 pm

We had the choice of Colorbond or tile - went for c/b for the following reasons:

1. We are in a high bushfire risk area - less chance of embers getting into the roof cavity with c/b
2. Are collecting rainwater in 10,000L tank - you get marginally more water off your roof vs tile (not much though)
3. Look - we love the clean look of c/b (though there are some very nice flat profile tiles)
4. Less maintenance - no need to worry about cracked tiles
5. Sound - we love the sound of rain on a c/b roof!

Cons of C/b - it costs more (about extra $5k) - even though there's less labour to put up c/b roof, less roof trusses needed.

brittany · Apr 18, 2008 1:28 pm

We went colourbond as we prefer the look. It didn't cost us any extra but we would've paid extra for it if we had to.

dreamhome · Apr 18, 2008 1:34 pm

stonecutter1309

We had the choice of Colorbond or tile - went for c/b for the following reasons:

1. We are in a high bushfire risk area - less chance of embers getting into the roof cavity with c/b
2. Are collecting rainwater in 10,000L tank - you get marginally more water off your roof vs tile (not much though)
3. Look - we love the clean look of c/b (though there are some very nice flat profile tiles)
4. Less maintenance - no need to worry about cracked tiles
5. Sound - we love the sound of rain on a c/b roof!

Cons of C/b - it costs more (about extra $5k) - even though there's less labour to put up c/b roof, less roof trusses needed.

Quote:

We went colourbond as we prefer the look. It didn't cost us any extra but we would've paid extra for it if we had to.

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. Does anyone know which one will last longer - colorbond or tiles?

In regards to maintenance, does colorbond every need maintenance? And how easy/expensive is it to replace cracked tiles?

Cheers

Judie · Apr 18, 2008 2:37 pm

We're going for Colorbond. From what I've heard, insurance assessors wish everyone had Colorbond roofs. With the storm patterns Australia's been experiencing, tile roofs sustain a lot more damage than Colorbond ones do. They're also better than tiles in bushfire areas because there's less chance of embers getting into the roof cavity.

Judie

Talinsmum · Apr 18, 2008 5:12 pm

Colorbond for us - we are building a steel framed house and the colorbond is standard with our builder.....

We were easy either way but the colorbond fits nicely into the whole fire prevention thing for us (also in a fire zone) and we know that other builders have it as an upgrade whereas ours was standard so it was a good deal

Fiona

kiwi056 · Apr 18, 2008 5:20 pm

Cookiemonster

I like the look of colourbond but I like the flexibility of tiles.

For instance if you ever need to get into the roof to run wires or get access to the top of the wall cavity to drop wires down then you can easily remove tiles to do this.

Colourbond would have cost us a quite a lot to upgrade to so we upgraded to a nice flat profile tile instead.

Likewise Colourbond for us and no difference in price

If you have eaves and high pitch roof problem solved! :wink:

3timesbuilda · Apr 18, 2008 5:28 pm

Or you could just put sarking under your tiles to prevent embers and get the insulation benefits.

I love the sound of rain on a tin roof for all of 10 minutes then it starts to get really annoying - can't hear the TV or talk to each other because it is raining - no thanks.

kiwi056 · Apr 18, 2008 5:45 pm

3timesbuilda

Or you could just put sarking under your tiles to prevent embers and get the insulation benefits.

I love the sound of rain on a tin roof for all of 10 minutes then it starts to get really annoying - can't hear the TV or talk to each other because it is raining - no thanks.

The wonders of insulation, fixes many problems. :wink:

dreamhome · Apr 18, 2008 6:11 pm

3timesbuilda

Or you could just put sarking under your tiles to prevent embers and get the insulation benefits.

I love the sound of rain on a tin roof for all of 10 minutes then it starts to get really annoying - can't hear the TV or talk to each other because it is raining - no thanks.

Is a colorbond roof really this noisy when it rains?

dreamhome · Apr 18, 2008 6:12 pm

kiwi056

Cookiemonster

I like the look of colourbond but I like the flexibility of tiles.

For instance if you ever need to get into the roof to run wires or get access to the top of the wall cavity to drop wires down then you can easily remove tiles to do this.

Colourbond would have cost us a quite a lot to upgrade to so we upgraded to a nice flat profile tile instead.

Likewise Colourbond for us and no difference in price

If you have eaves and high pitch roof problem solved! :wink:

Is it better to have colorbond since we have eaves? Can u please explain why?

Thanks

Helyn · Apr 18, 2008 6:45 pm

Quote:

Colorbond for us - we are building a steel framed house and the colorbond is standard with our builder.....

Yes, this is same for us, builder only uses colourbond roofs, which is fine, I like them anyway.

Do steel frames always have colourbond roofs but timber frames can have either???

Why is this so?

BTW, Talinsmum, who is your builder, I remember you saying before that you were building steel frame home but can't remember if you mentioned the company.

The question: is rain that noisy on a colourbond roof??
No, I don't think so, have been in many houses with colourbond or old tin roofs and it is relaxing background noise, love listening to it as I am drifting off to sleep but certainly not so noisy that you cant hear inside sounds.

stonecutter1309 · Apr 18, 2008 6:46 pm

dreamhome

Is a colorbond roof really this noisy when it rains?

Only if you don't have a false ceiling. For example - my parents place is Colorbond roof - but exposed inside (it's actually 2 pieces of Colorbond with foam in between) - therefore you hear a lot of rain noise. Mum & dad use infra-red headphones to watch TV when it pours!

However, if you have a pitched roof but flat regular ceiling, the anticon blanket, ceiling insulation and then gyprock keeps the noise to the same as a tile roof - perhaps a tiny bit louder but a nice pitter patter (IMHO)

to_do_list · Apr 18, 2008 7:13 pm

Helyn

Quote:

Do steel frames always have colourbond roofs but timber frames can have either???

No steel frames can have either...if you go to one of the major steel builders their standard specs have concrete roof tiles.

When I built with them eight years ago Colorbond or tiles made to difference...now Colorbond is a $5k extra typically.

Don't know if Colorbond has a more expensive supply cost or they are just following the market trend. I would have thought Colorbond would be quicker to fix that's just a gut thing.

Justin · Apr 18, 2008 7:43 pm

We've gone with Colourbond. We feel that it has far less maintenance issues than tiles, looks better, is better structurally for the house (hardly any weight on the roof trusses, whereas tiles are heavy particularly when they get old and start to soak up the rain). With a double storey house (as ours is) those considerations are also multiplied when you consider potential access issues.

Justin.

dreamhome · Apr 18, 2008 10:55 pm

Thanks everyone. Seems like Colorbond is the way to go

Talinsmum · Apr 18, 2008 11:33 pm

Hey Helyn

We are going to build with McDonald Jones - its a smaller project builder up this way .....

As for noise - we deliberately went up to the display house during a really rainy and thundery day to do a walk through cause we weren't sure about that side of things .... we barely heard a thing cause of the insulation - certainly no more noise than the tiled roofed display house next door....

Fiona

Eager · Apr 18, 2008 11:33 pm

I'll make the observation that most of the respondants that prefer colourbond are from Sydney/NSW where hail damage affects tiled roofs more often than in other states. Strangely though, it seems that most often it is tin roofs that get completely blown off in severe storms.

Apart from weather considerations it is a matter of personal choice. I was quite happy to stick with the default from my builder, which was tiles.

Talinsmum · Apr 18, 2008 11:38 pm

Not sure about that for me Eagar - I've never lived in a house with a colorbond roof and I've also never had any tiles damaged due to hail either (despite being nearly floated out of our home in the June long weekend floods last year) ..... for me the colorbond thing is a matter of clean lines and appearance - if it hadn't been offered as standard I doubt I would have paid extra for it though :th:

Fiona

Eager · Apr 18, 2008 11:54 pm

Fair enough, like I said, peersonal choice.