By Jude Njoku

Do you intend your house to stand out in your neighbourhood and you are engrossed with thoughts about what to do? Well, you may try covering the roof of your house with shingles instead of the popular long span aluminum or zinc being used by many home owners.

Shingles are a roof covering consisting of individual overlapping elements. These elements are typically flat rectangular shapes laid in rows from the bottom edge of the roof up, with each successive higher row overlapping the joints.  Most shingles are multi-coloured and allow people to create buildings that are unique to them.

Commercial Country Manager Russia who doubles as the Account Manager for IKO in Africa, Mr. Eddy De Peuter whose company recently introduced a new shingle – Armourshield  into the Nigerian market, explained that the shingles come in special colours which discerning property investors can use to create something unique to them in their neighbourhoods.

An opulent house roofed with shingles

“From the technical point of view, Armourshield has a lot of advantages. It is unbelievably flexible when compared with other roofing sheets. There is no restriction for the bitumen shingles to be put on the roof. The only restriction is that you should have a slope of 15 degrees which is very low, almost very close to a flat roof while other roof materials would require a bigger slope or pitch to hold water infiltration,” he said.

Raw materials used in the production include oxidized bitumen, glass fibre inlay and on top of the shingle are high-end quality granules made from rocks.

Speaking specifically on Armourshield shingles he said: “The installation is quicker than those of its competitors; the sheets stick to each other within two – three hours. This implies that everything is closed. The roof is closed up without extra expenses , without extra labour or accessories for installation. No insect can enter the house nor birds live under the roofs. Also, mosquitoes cannot come in because the roof is closed up. The roof is very well insulated to prevent heat. You can go up to 90 degrees without having water infiltration.”

Shingles are ecologically friendly. “You can drink the water or use it for other households purposes. There are no dangerous or harmful chemical addictive” he said.