Having gone on holiday to the middle east for some time, i noticed all the traditional houses don't have rooftops made of aluminium and timber like Nigerian Houses have. Therefore, how come 90 percent of all Nigerian houses even duplex have roofs made of timber and aluminium. Why can't the top be sealed off with cement and gravel.

Is the reason for not sealing off the roof of a typical Nigerian house with cement or mortar because of heat and temperature reasons? The Middle East is equally as hot as Nigeria too. So please Architects in the House i need your help.

Find attached the pictures below: The first two are typical Middle Eastern Homes with no timber or aluminium roofs, whilst the next two are typical Nigerian roofs

May be it is because of the rainfall over here. Constant wetting of the concrete roof over time might allow water seep through it. Just my thought

mokset123:
May be it is because of the rainfall over here. Constant wetting of the concrete roof over time might allow water seep through it. Just my thought

Then there can be pipe drainages built into the walls of the roof so no matter how much it rains there would never be stagnant water on the roof top ...plus a garden could be constructed on the rooftop to minimise any leakage below...#just my thoughts

The humidity here must play a part. Lalasticlala this should hit the frontpage let more contributions roll in.

concrete have a high thermal mass so a concrete roof would absorb and radiate a lot of heat into the house.

1. High cost of decking the roof compared to Aluminium.
2. Concrete will generate more heat inside the house, unless other alternatives are added.
3. Maintenance... you need to constantly maintain it so it does not leak.
4. Weight of the concrete slab on the house.
5. Hard to change Nigerian mentality to new stuffs.

I am sure there are both advantages and disadvantages to both in Nigeria.

Hajji M.

mufutau55:
1. High cost of decking the roof compared to Aluminium.
2. Concrete will generate more heat inside the house, unless other alternatives are added.
3. Maintenance... you need to constantly maintain it so it does not leak.
4. Weight of the concrete slab on the house.
5. Hard to change Nigerian mentality to new stuffs.

I am sure there are both advantages and disadvantages to both in Nigeria.

Hajji M.

1. I slightly disagree as the cost of decking the roof with cement would just be as costly as decking the different floor level of a multi-story building for instance. From my experience, it costs nothing less than 1 million naira to deck a 4 bedroom house for instance with aluminum and timber. I don't think it would cost that much to cover the same square area with cement with 1 million naira. I would be surprised if i am wrong tho.

2True but there are a lot of multi story buildings in Nigeria where the people on the different floors except the top-most floor will and have experienced the different levels of heats. Moral of the story the room windows can be made bigger for instance but surely this shouldn't b a disadvantage as Nigeria is hot anyway with or without concrete slabs as roofs. Concrete roof slabs would only be indicating the obvious .

3.This is true but if drainage pipes are correctly integrated into the top cement decking then constant maintenance won't necessarily be needed.

4. The Concrete slab won't necessarily be made be heavy afterall its job is to make sure rain or moisture doesn't seep into the building so it can be a thin- metal integrated concrete slab which will weigh less. Also the foundations of the buildings could be built to take into the account the weight of the concrete slab.

5. yeah i like this one,maybe why but in general i think decking the Nigerian way sometimes takes most of the Housing Budget together with its foundation, If concrete roof slabs are used it would cost considerably less.