Roofing in Chile

Chile stretches from the Atacama desert to the rain forests and fjords of Patagonia, and it is one of the most seismically active countries in the world. Its roofing traditions include Andean grass thatch in the north, Mapuche thatched houses and colonial clay tile in the centre, the shingle-clad wooden churches of Chiloé in the south, and the corrugated zinc of the port of Valparaíso. Today most homes are roofed with metal or fibre-cement sheets.

Climate and hazards

• Earthquakes. A major earthquake in 2010 damaged buildings in Valparaíso, and seismic design governs national building rules.
• Very wet, windy south: in March 2002 a storm brought down the tower of Chonchi church on Chiloé.
• Dry north and a Mediterranean-climate centre with winter rain.
• Fire: a fire in 2007 damaged buildings in Valparaíso.

Roofing history

Andean and Indigenous. In the far north, Andean houses were roofed with grass thatch of ichu. In the south-centre, the Mapuche built rukas, round, oval or rectangular houses with a strong frame of oak (roble) and roofs, sometimes walls too, of bundled straw or rushes. A ruka had no windows and a single main door facing east; the central hearth was kept burning and its smoke blackened the walls.

Colonial. In central Chile, colonial houses were built mainly of earth and straw, typically adobe walls with timber roofs covered in curved clay tiles in the Spanish tradition. Many suffered badly in earthquakes.

Chiloé. Jesuits arrived in the Chiloé archipelago in 1608 and ran a travelling "circular mission"; about 70 churches were built under it, and by the end of the 19th century more than 100, of which about 60 survive. Their builders used local timber with joinery influenced by boat-building and clad the churches in hand-split wooden shingles (tejuelas). Sixteen churches were inscribed by UNESCO in 2000.

Valparaíso. The port reached its peak between the 1880s and 1914, before the Panama Canal opened, and its hillside quarters were built with a wide variety of techniques. A documented house on calle Sierra, for example, has a frame of Oregon pine on stone footings and a roof of corrugated zinc sheet, with sheet-metal cladding on its north façade. The historic quarter was inscribed by UNESCO in 2003.

Mining towns. The saltpetre works of Humberstone and Santa Laura (UNESCO 2005) and the copper-mining town of Sewell (UNESCO 2006) preserve industrial-era buildings in the desert and the Andes.

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Ruka: Mapuche thatched house (see ruka).
• Tejuela: hand-split shingles of alerce, Guaitecas cypress, mountain cypress, mañío, coigüe and other native woods, used on roofs and walls in Chiloé and Aysén. In Aysén, shingled buildings date from about 1930 to 1995, and the trade is now close to extinction.
• Teja on adobe: central valley colonial and rural houses.
• Ichu thatch: Andean north.

Roofing today

In the 2024 census, INE reported that the predominant roof material of 68% of dwellings was metal or fibre-cement sheet (planchas metálicas y de fibrocemento), up from 66.4% in 2017. Roofs of acceptable material quality were found in 99.7% of dwellings, compared with 99% in 2002. Masonry (albañilería) was the most common exterior wall material, at 43%.

Codes, standards and regulation

Chile's seismic design standard is NCh433; a 2012 comparative review listed NCh433.Of2009 with its 2010 modification as then in force. Heritage buildings, including the Chiloé churches, are protected as National Monuments under Law 17.288 of 1970.

Notable roofs

• Churches of Chiloé (UNESCO 2000): sixteen shingle-clad timber churches.
• Historic Quarter of Valparaíso (UNESCO 2003).
• Humberstone and Santa Laura Saltpeter Works (UNESCO 2005) and Sewell Mining Town (UNESCO 2006).

Local roofing terms

• Planchas metálicas or zinc: metal roofing sheets.
• Fibrocemento: fibre-cement sheet.
• Tejuela: hand-split wooden shingle.
• Teja: clay tile.
• Ruka: Mapuche house.
• Minga: communal work, used to build and maintain houses and churches on Chiloé.