Roofing in Sweden

Sweden's roofing grew out of a timber culture. Rural log houses were roofed for centuries with birch bark and turf, churches and bell towers with split and tarred wooden shingles, and towns gradually adopted clay tile, copper and sheet metal. Since the 1960s, concrete roof tiles have become the most common covering on Swedish houses, with steel sheet and felt also widely used.

Climate and hazards

Sweden stretches from temperate Skåne in the south to sub-Arctic Lapland. Snow load, freeze-thaw and long wet seasons are the main concerns, and in the north snow lies on roofs for months. Fire has been the main hazard for timber buildings: UNESCO identifies fire as the greatest threat to the decorated timber farmhouses of Hälsingland.

Roofing history

Wood tar, essential to Nordic roofing, has a very long history in Sweden. Cone-shaped pits north of Uppsala show chemical traces of pine tar production, and radiocarbon dating places the oldest between 540 and 380 BC, possibly the oldest surviving tar production site known. Large-scale tar production began in Finland, then part of the Swedish realm, in the early 17th century, and by the late 17th century tar was Sweden's third most valuable export; in present-day Sweden large-scale production started around 1700. Swedish tar was sold internationally as "Stockholm tar". Production peaked around the mid-1850s.

In the Viking Age and the Middle Ages most Scandinavian houses had turf roofs over birch bark, while churches and steep roofs used boards, wooden shingles or lead. In the Middle Ages almost all Swedish buildings, urban and rural, were of timber. From the 12th century stone became the usual material for monasteries and churches, and brick followed for the Gothic cathedrals of Västerås, Strängnäs and Uppsala. About 1,500 of Sweden's roughly 4,000 churches date from the Middle Ages.

Turf remained almost universal on rural roofs until the early 18th century. Tile, already common in towns and on manors, gradually replaced it during the 19th century, with corrugated iron adding further pressure. In 1965 the government announced the Million Programme, aiming to build a million dwellings in ten years, which produced large numbers of apartment blocks.

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Torvtak: turf over layered birch bark on log houses, shared with Norway and Finland. See Scandinavian sod roofs.
• Shingle roofs: thin wooden shingles coated with wood tar on churches and other steep roofs, continuing the medieval practice of covering high-status buildings with boards, shingles or lead.
• Halland seaweed houses: houses roofed with eelgrass, like those on Læsø in Denmark, once existed in Halland on the Swedish Kattegat coast; none remain.
• Hälsingland farmhouses: large 18th- and 19th-century timber farmhouses with richly painted festive rooms. Their traditional roof coverings have been replaced with modern materials to protect the interiors, the one departure from traditional repair methods noted by UNESCO.

Roofing today

Concrete roof tiles are generally described as Sweden's most popular roofing material. The double-barrel concrete pantile has been the most laid roof tile in Sweden since the 1960s, according to its leading producer. Profiled and seamed steel sheet, clay tile, bitumen roofing felt (takpapp) and shingles are also common. A 2025-2026 Swedish consumer guide gave typical service lives of 40-60 years for concrete tiles and steel sheet, 50-100 years or more for clay tiles and 15-30 years for felt. Large flat roofs on apartment, commercial and industrial buildings use bituminous and synthetic membranes.

Codes, standards and regulation

The national building agency Boverket issues Boverket's building regulations (BBR), which contain mandatory provisions and general recommendations for new buildings and alterations. Structural design, including snow loads, follows the Eurocodes; snow is covered by Eurocode 1, Part 1-3.

Industry

• Benders (Benders Sverige AB) describes itself as the market leader in concrete roofing in Sweden and has made roof tiles for several decades.
• Nordic Waterproofing, based in Helsingborg, supplies bituminous membranes, EPDM and green-roof systems across the Nordic region. See Nordic Waterproofing.
• Swedish steel group SSAB owns the Finnish steel roofing supplier Ruukki. See Ruukki.

Notable roofs

• Decorated Farmhouses of Hälsingland: seven timber farmhouses on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
• Sweden's medieval parish churches, built first of timber and later of stone and brick.

Local roofing terms

• torvtak - turf roof
• takpapp - roofing felt
• Stockholmstjära ("Stockholm tar") - the export name for Swedish pine tar

Sources and gaps

Swedish census data on roof materials and dates for specific historic shingle roofs: published information is limited.