Can you tile a Bermuda roof with ceramic tiles?

[beeza]

With all this recent rain I've discovered a few spots of filtration from my Bermuda roof. In the sixteen years I've lived in this house I think I must have painted it at least four times. The locally obtained paint, just doesn't withstand the elements. The last attempt was with the Lanco Siliconizer. It applies blue then turns white as it dries. I guess that has lasted about five years. But it's a messy, labour intensive and expensive job to repaint my roof every five years. It's a big roof too, nearly 600m2.

Ever since I tiled my swimming pool, I found out it's a one time job. Expensive yes, but worth the investment as a properly tiled pool with glass tiles is virtually maintenance free (and I use a lot less chemicals)

This got me thinking that what if I tiled my roof with cheap white ceramic tiles? The basic ones are fairly inexpensive and perhaps withstand the elements better than paint.

Asking for opinions from construction experts.

 

[MariaRubia]

If you do tile, you will need to spend good money on the tile adhesive and the grout. I recommend using the Laticrete Gold thinset as the adhesive, and Laticrete Permacolor grout - I was recommended to use these on a very exposed wall which gets huge amounts of sun, rain, wind, and both are excellent. The grout and the tile adhesive will do more work for you than the tiles, since the gaps between the tiles are more likely to let the water in than the tiles themselves. The main thing you need to avoid is shrinkage and expansion of the grout. It will constantly get heated up in the sun, cracks can then open, and then with the amount of rain we get, water finds a way in. You can buy these product from Cerarte on 27 February in Santo Domingo and I would recommend talking to them - they have a huge expertise in tiling and could advise you on a more complex project like this. Be warned that both are very pricey (from memory the thinset is about RD$ 2,500 for a smallish sack), but I think if you were to use a normal Lanco Pegamento and a normal grout, you'd be asking for trouble on a roof.

It's very similar with swimming pools. if you have an in-ground pool and you tile it, it will probably still leak but you won't notice. But pools which are above ground, like on roofs for example, tend to be a nightmare if you tile them because in time the grout develops cracks or the tiles loosen. Where I live we have a number of pools, including tiled ones (which leak like a sieve after a few years) and ones with poolcoat, and in my opinion poolcoat is the best option. Again if tiling, things will work out a lot better if you use a good thinset and good grout.

I'm not a construction expert but have done a lot of building projects here.