Roofing in Grenada

Grenada comprises the main island and the smaller islands of Carriacou and Petite Martinique. Its roofs have been repeatedly tested by hurricanes, including Hurricane Beryl in 2024.

Climate and hazards

Hurricane Beryl made landfall on Carriacou on 2 July 2024 as a Category 4 hurricane. Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell described almost complete destruction of homes and buildings on the island, and Carriacou and Petite Martinique suffered the worst damage in the country; the roof of a hospital was damaged, forcing patients to move to a lower floor. The OECS code also notes earthquake and flood exposure in the region.

Roofing history

Throughout the Eastern Caribbean, older timber houses typically have steep hip or gable roofs clad first in wooden shingles and later in corrugated iron. Hip roofs, sloping on all four sides, are self-bracing and lack tall gable ends that catch the wind, and slopes of about 35 degrees or more are often preferred in hurricane regions because shallower roofs are more prone to uplift.

Roofing today

Reconstruction after Beryl has focused on roofs and their fixings.

Codes, standards and regulation

The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) developed model building codes and guidelines for small buildings with support from UNCHS and UNDP, based on the Caribbean Uniform Building Code (CUBiC). The USAID-funded, OAS-executed Caribbean Disaster Mitigation Project helped Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada and Saint Lucia prepare national codes from these models, and published construction diagrams covering hip and gable roof framing, rafter-to-ring-beam and wall-plate connections and hurricane straps for houses under 3,000 ft² (279 m²). A revised OECS Building Code was issued in June 2015, reviewed that year for Grenada, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia and Montserrat, and drew on the codes of Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. National consultations on administering it were held across the sub-region in 2017 under the EU-funded iLand Resilience project. A draft Grenada code was published on the CDMP website, and the 2015 OECS revision was prepared for Grenada among others.

Sources and gaps

Published accounts of island-specific historic roofing: published information is limited. National roof-material statistics were not found in published sources.

Roofing history, materials data, Beryl roof-loss totals and the legal status of the code: published information is limited.