Cold Flat Roof Explained

What is a Cold Flat Roof?

By placing insulation below the roof and its supportive decking, we form a cold roof. For a cold roof construction the insulation is under the roof, so the roof and the roof timbers are cold. The makeup of a warm roof is like sleeping under your quilt i.e., all the timbers and the structure are in the warm therefore a warm roof.

Disadvantages of a Cold Flat Roof

The disadvantages of using a cold flat roof system are that it’s more expensive to build because of the need for additional ventilation. It’s also not thermally as good because there is thermal bridging through the joists.

Advantages of a Cold Flat Roof

The advantages of a cold roof is that it’s not so high as a warm roof. On a warm roof the insulation goes on top of all this area and the roof covering goes on top of that, so the advantages of a cold roof are that it’s not so deep in height and this helps us when we’re doing retrofit flat roof construction.

How a Cold Flat Roof Works

In this video our Principal Estimator – Steven Dickinson outlines how a cold flat roof works and explains the known advantages and disadvantages of the system.

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