Playing With Fire: Rating and Testing Synthetic Roofs

By DaVinci Roofscapes. 

DaVinci synthetic roofs are Class A fire-rated, the highest rating available to help protect your home. 

Your roof not only needs to protect your home from the weather, but also from fires that may be caused by lightning strikes or burning embers. This is bad news if your roof is made of real cedar. The good news is that you can easily upgrade your roof to the highest safety level by switching to synthetic roofing materials. Investing in a Class A fire-rated roof system means you will have the highest fire rating on a roof, giving you peace of mind that your roof will not burn. 

There are three tests all DaVinci synthetic roofing materials undertake to achieve the Class A Fire Rating. These include: 

1 - Intermittent flame test – An assembly of tiles is subjected to an intense flame for two minutes then turned off for two minutes. This is cycled 15 times to see if there is failure in the roof deck. 

2 - Spread of flame test – Flame and air current are applied for 10 consecutive minutes and then checked for failure. 

3 - Burning brand test – A burning brand is placed on an assembly of roofing tiles with a high volume of wind behind it. The decking of the assembly is constantly monitored for 90 minutes to see if any fire burns through. If fire burns through the roof deck anytime during the 90-minute trial, the tiles fail. 

Head of the class... 

Roof fire ratings are established by test methods to ensure that certain standards are formalized to protect human life and property. 

The American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Standard E108 is one such test method. This organization rates materials and classifies them with a Class A, Class B or Class C Fire Rating through this method. 

Class A is the highest, whereas Class C is the lowest. 

A roofing product that has a Class A Fire Rating meets all three requirements, which are: ability to resist spreading of flames on surface, ability to resist fire penetration from the exterior to the underside of the rock deck, and ability to resist recurring intermittent flame. 

When you are told a roof has a Class A Fire Rating, it means that the product has successfully passed these three tests. Always remember that Class A is the best classification available. 

Our DaVinci products have undergone extensive fire testing using the ASTM E 108 test standard at the Class A level to assure you have the best roofing product available. 

Worry about fires, really? 

Yes, really. It could happen to your neighborhood. To your home. 

Remember the massive wildfires of 2018? The National Interagency Fire Center reports there were 7,391 separate fires. They burned 184,442 acres. By December 18, 2020 there were about 57,000 wildfires compared with 50,477 in 2019, according to the same agency. More than 10.3 million acres were burned in 2020, compared with 4.7 million acres in 2019. 

And remember, it’s not that a fire has to be in your specific area. A spark from a wildfire can travel up to a mile in windy conditions. That one spark could be fatal if it lands on your real wood roof. However, that same spark turns into a “non-event” when you have a synthetic shake or slate roof overhead. 

Have a question? AskARoofer.  

Find your local roofing contractor in the RoofersCoffeeShop® Contractor Directory. 

Original article source: DaVinci Roofscapes