Ashphalt or mineral felt roof

[dec765]

I was ringing around for a home insurance quote.
One insurer was very difficult about the flat roof type.

Apparently they do not cover one of the above roof types

How can I readily tell the difference between ashalt & mineral felt?

My house was built in the late 60's & as far as I can tell it still has the original roof.

It seems to be a course felt-like material with a covering of shingle stones on.

Any ideas what it is??

 

[masona]

How can I readily tell the difference between ashalt & mineral felt?

I only thing I can think of is, the asphalts (bitumen & sand) which is normally on a very flat roof with hardly any fall.

The felt is the most common roofing providing the flat roof have a slope firring type fall and have shingle on top.(some roof have silver paint on top to reflect the sun)

The shingle is to break the rain into a fine mists, protect the felt from the sun and fire resistance.

 

[big-all]

i would have thought they wanted to know if its green mineral felt coverd finnished with stones[the better quality felt]or the poorer quality black felt
green felt lasts years longer apparenly[says i with a leaky gutter on my black felt roof waiting to have green felt put on ]

 

[masona]

People get mix up with bitumen and asphalts.

Bitumen is a hot pour 100% neat liquid

Asphalts is known as bitumen bulked by sand as you see on road.

This is why I was explaining (well, I wasn't very clear ) you can have asphalts roof type and that is without roofing felt, quite rare these days.

If you're really interested the real name is PDA (Propane de-asphalts) which change to the name of Bitumen.

I think the insurance company are asking if it has got felt or no felt because of greater fire risk maybe ???