How Does a Clay Tile Roof Compare to Shingles?
Roofing Materials and Resources Traditionally roofs have been covered with materials at hand. Rushes and grass, woven or tied together, were early natural materials used to cover homes; in some areas thatch still keeps homeowners dry. Builders in areas that were heavily forested used wood “shake” shingles, broken from the stumps of trees cut for lumber. Clay from local soils became the basic material for bricks, simple clay shingles and the clay tiles that grace the roofs of Mediterranean and Southwestern U.S. buildings. Composition or “asphalt” shingles are actually a fairly new invention and have been used only since the early part of the 20th century when Henry Reynolds cut a roll of asphalt-soaked felt roofing into single pieces. By the 1930s Reynolds’ invention was being marketed in various shapes and colors but was still basically the same material. Asbestos was used as a base until its dangers became common knowledge and, beginning in the 1970s, fiberglass was substituted for fe
