Roofing From the Other Side of the World

During my recent trip to Korea, Vietnam and Cambodia, I made some interesting observations about the roofs on the other side of the world.  You see , even when I’m supposed to be on vacation, I can’t help but look at roofs.  I guess that it is in my blood.

The first picture is from my hotel room in Ho Chi Mihn city (Saigon), Vietnam.  It shows the predominantly corrugated tin roofs of the shops.

The second picture is of a hut in Vietnam with a thatched roof.  This is one of the few types of roof that I have never installed and unless I get chosen for Survivor, I never plan to.

The third picture is of the stone roofs of Angkor Watt in Cambodia.  These roofs have lasted for centuries. Yeah…they just don’t build them like that anymore!

The last picture is of a beautiful tile roof outside of the Kings Palace in Cambodia.  I guess if you are the King, you can pretty much have any type of roof that you want.  Close by was the Royal Treasury building with a very similar roof.  I’m sure that they set the treasury back a little bit.

The main thing that I noticed over there, especially in Vietnam and Cambodia, is that there is a huge disparity in the roofs from the city to the outlying areas.  There must be a huge difference in the average incomes as well.   I was told that the average income for a worker in Siem Reap, Cambodia is about $75. a month.  The average person has a corrugated tin roof.  The above average person has a tile roof and the below average is lucky to have a thatch roof on his hut.  There is little need for insulation, as the average temperature is fairly high in the tropical environment.  They do have an awful lot of rain, as I can attest to, as we were there during “the rainy season”.  They have had so much rain of late that there has been devastating flooding.

I generally don’t see that much disparity in the TYPE of roofs that I see here in Central Pennsylvania.  Almost everyone is using the same type of shingles or metal or single ply membrane. The disparity that I see here almost always comes from the installation.  Very rarely do I ever see any shoddy materials.  I wish that I could say the same thing for the workmanship, because even if you use good quality materials, poor workmanship can ruin a project causing damaging roof leaks to occur into the future.

If you are living in anything from a grass hut to a Kings Palace, the most important part of the building is the roof.  What type of roof do you have?  How long do you think that it will last?