[Greenbuilding] experience with Enviroshake?

[Irina Golfman]

Keith,

Here is what the Enviroshake installer said in reply to my question 
regarding the curling of the shingles:

I can tell you that only 2% of the Enviroshake product is actually crumb 
rubber material.  The rest is a composition of recycled plastic 
products.  It is a closed cell molded product that is impervious to water, 
there is very little if any water absorption, and therefore is resistant to 
any warping or dimensional instability.  I can assure you that the product 
is extremely stable.

The ahingles are installed in the same way the asphalt shingles are and 
require the same venting. They are proposing to install the ice and water 
shield as an underlayment.

Unless someone tells me about a bad experience with Enviroshake I think I 
will go for it. It is much more affordable than the metal roof that I 
originally hoped to install. I'll email the list about my experience with 
the product later.

Thank you to everyone for their suggestions.
Irina

At 04:44 PM 8/20/2006, Keith Winston wrote:
>You may be right about rushing to market, or even a bad batch or
>something. Also, the moisture issue was more at the core of my point
>than temperature -- I was thinking that perhaps Enviroshakes were
>supposed to be installed on wood strips to "breathe," and that hadn't
>been done. But I looked them up, and they are installed pretty much just
>like asphalt/composite shingles. I think without some pictures and
>perhaps more details, we can't have much idea what went wrong. It may be
>that they were just installed too tight, which often happens with
>asphalt/composite shingles. According to their press releases, the
>product was released in 2002, after 6 years of development. It's 95%
>agricultural fibers and recycled industrial waste, though they won't
>release many details to further break that down, it seems.
>
>I haven't looked closely at Enviroshakes. They might also be stamped
>from (rolled) sheet products.
>
>Keith
>
>
>abetterbuilder at frontiernet.net wrote:
> > Quoting Keith Winston <keith at earthsunenergy.com>:
> >
> >
> >> I don't have experience with Enviroshakes, so I don't know if it's a
> >> faulty product. But often roofing fails for a reason: wrong
> >> preparation/underlayment, wrong nailing, installed too tight, etc. The
> >> most likely thing that I can imagine might curl corners would be
> >> excessive heat and/or trapped moisture, which would tend to point
> >> towards faulty preparation.
> >>
> >> Lower corners on the shingles should be overlapping the lower course.
> >> Trapped moisture should hardly  affect a rubber shingle that far down
> >> without affecting the upper part as well.
> >>
> > Any roofing project should be engineered to withstand the high
> > temperatures found on roofs.
> > "Memory" is also unlikely to be a cause, as the shingles were certainly
> > cast in their installed shape.
> > I would suspect that the manufacturer rushed the product to market
> > without a long term field test. Lab simulations don't always mimic real
> > world conditions.
> > Bruce Donelson
> > A Better Builder
> >
> >
> >
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> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>--
>Keith Winston
>Earth Sun Energy Systems
>3927 Madison St.
>Hyattsville, MD 20781
>301-980-6325
>keith at earthsunenergy.com
>www.EarthSunEnergy.com
>
>
>
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