Frontier Museum, VA - German Farm 1700's

[mgbinspect]

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Bill, any thoughts on the roofing tiles here not being half over half? Why doesn't the roof leak?

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[Bill Kibbel]

Bill, any thoughts on the roofing tiles here not being half over half? Why doesn't the roof leak?

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Excellent question. I had the same question decades ago when finding original tile roofs under layers of later roofing covering early PA German buildings. I thought it was odd that these early German builders, that typically built outstanding structures wouldn't put any side-lap to roofing tiles.

Here's the answer for many early German-American tile roofs:

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I also have an illustration in an 18th century book from Germany showing the 2 methods of laying tiles. The one without the side-lap shows a channel, or lip, moulded onto the edge of each tile.

The alignment of the tiles both vertically and horizontally must be that strict order & structure thing that the German people seem to be known for.

[mgbinspect]

I'm REALLY looking forward to finally coming to meet you and hear you speak. You may recall that I put in an application for the Historical Building Inspectors Association around 2006, but apparently fell just a bit short of what the association was looking for.

[hausdok]

I saw plenty of these old homes when I was stationed in Germany - especially in Norddeutschland (Northern Germany) where the terrain is as flat as an airfield and less was destroyed during the war.

ONE TEAM - ONE FIGHT!!!

Mike