flat roof with sprinklers

[Jerry Lozier]

Early '50s flat roof home. Don't see flat roof gravel roofs often, this one has a brass sprinkler and another termination that may have been at one time.

Was that the original cooling the roof down system before A/C???

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[kurt]

Maybe. A lot of old warehouses in Chicago were engineered to pond water as a cooling method. 1950's Yakima...they might have done something similar.

Flat roofs used to be coat tar pitch; the stuff would heat up in the sun and flow, self healing in the process. The stuff worked reasonably well. Can you see if it's coal tar?

[Jerry Lozier]

Thanks Kurt,

I called it asphalt- gravel and appears to be recently recoated and new gravel.

Even at that would not know what coal tar looks like

[John Kogel]

Thanks Kurt,

I called it asphalt- gravel and appears to be recently recoated and new gravel.

Even at that would not know what coal tar looks like

A drop of coal tar, or tar pitch, or asphalt, depending on who is describing it, takes about one decade, 10 years, to form and drip. It was a big deal in the scientific world in 2013 when somebody was on the scene to witness and film the drop falling.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-bri ... sw_-Ps6z1s

Re: sprinklers on the roof, they are there to scare seagulls off the roof. []

I inspected a roof where the owner had a motion detector rigged up to turn sprinklers on. Seagull crap and shells all over the roof. Water was turned off.

[DeBolt]

Hey Jerry,

I have seen roof top sprinkler systems installed for fire prevention (Mountain homes), but I doubt that is the reason in your case.

How do you call out bird targeted motion sensor roof top sprinkler systems? [:-bigeyes

[John Kogel]

Hey Jerry,

I have seen roof top sprinkler systems installed for fire prevention (Mountain homes), but I doubt that is the reason in your case.

How do you call out bird targeted motion sensor roof top sprinkler systems? [:-bigeyes

I didn't call it out. I told my client it was up there and gave him pictures to look at. Prairie farmer moving to a retirement home. I'm sure he designed some other bird scare device.