Bitumen Shingle

A bitumen shingle is a roofing shingle made from a reinforcing mat, usually glass fibre, coated with bitumen and surfaced with mineral granules. It is essentially the same product that is called an asphalt shingle or composition shingle in North America; "bitumen" is the term generally used in Europe for the petroleum binder that Americans call asphalt.

Construction

European bitumen shingles are typically built on a glass-fibre mat saturated and coated with oxidised or polymer-modified bitumen. They are nailed to a continuous supporting deck. Example product data for a common European shingle give:

• Size: about 1,000 by 337 mm (39 by 13 in);
• Thickness: about 2.9 mm (0.11 in);
• Weight: about 8-9.4 kg/m² (1.6-1.9 lb/ft²);
• Pitch range: from about 15-20° up to 85°, with an underlay recommended on lower pitches.

Shapes

Common cut patterns include rectangular (similar to North American three-tab shingles), beaver-tail or round, hexagonal and triangular.

Use in Europe

Bitumen shingles are widely sold in Europe for houses as well as garden buildings and cabins. Asphalt shingles are reported to be gaining popularity in Europe because installation costs are lower than for many traditional materials.

Standards

In Europe, bitumen shingles are CE-marked against a harmonised product standard and supplied with a Declaration of Performance. In North America, glass-mat shingles are specified to ASTM D3462.

Warranty and fixing

Manufacturer warranties on European bitumen shingles are typically limited to weatherproofing and depend on installation to the maker's instructions; one common product carries a 10-year weatherproof warranty. Each shingle is fixed with nails into a continuous deck.