Just a quick tip—before you jump into installing solar tiles, double-check your roof's weight capacity. Learned this the hard way when my neighbor had to reinforce his roof mid-installation, um, not fun. Anyone else got tips or stories about this?
That's a good point about weight capacity, hadn't really thought about that angle before. Makes me wonder—does the type of roofing material underneath (like shingles vs. metal roofing) significantly affect how much extra weight you can safely add? I've seen solar tiles installed on both, but never heard if one type handles the load better than the other. Curious if anyone's looked into this or had experience with different roof types...
From my experience, the roofing material itself (shingles vs. metal) doesn't significantly impact load capacity—it's more about the underlying structure and framing. I've seen metal roofs buckle under poorly planned installations, so I'd focus more on structural integrity than surface material...
Good points overall, but I'd add a couple things from my experience:
- Roofing material itself doesn't drastically change load capacity, true, but heavier materials (like tile or slate) do eat into your available margin for solar tiles.
- Seen plenty of cases where switching to metal actually helped distribute weight better—IF the framing was solid underneath.
- Definitely agree structural integrity is key. If you're unsure, getting an engineer to eyeball it can save headaches down the road...
Haha, reminds me of when my cousin went solar—thought his roof was solid till the installer stepped right through a weak spot... awkward pause included. But yeah, metal roofing saved his day too, spread the weight nicely.
