Topic: pan tile

[Frank]

That is true, as the cast/pressed ones are so common here perhaps they were always a traditional way of providing roof lights in France and thus used in the older flat tile roofs. I will keep an eye open for in-use examples but as the flat tiles have a lifespan of 50-70 years they might not be too many left. It is the norm here to have nothing under the tiles - so this makes adding lights very simple.

[ian.macky]

I see this sort of glass roof tile for sale on eBay UK pretty regularly, usually removed from old conservatories.  Wish I lived over there, I would have bought hundreds by now, as they often go cheap (in quantity)-- I'd use them for a greenhouse roof.

They don't  appear to be walkable, unlike the heavier rectangular flat kind (or floor tiles/prisms, the larger, lighter-duty relatives of vault lights).

Don't know when the earlier sort were made, or by whom, but they are still being made now (as googles found out).  My flat ones are all well marked, but the older Spanish tile sort are not.

Wish I knew when these first came out, and who was making them-- whose idea it was.  It was a good idea-- glass lasts just about forever in the weather, so I can see lots of nice applications for these.  Front stoop, anyone?  Sun room?  Garage would be nice, providing they block all UV.

--ian

[Frank]

They are quite thick so probably block a fair amount of UV, it would be nice to do our barn roof in them but that would probably need a beefing up of the struts they hang on. Main beams are oak so no issue with the extra weight.

[ian.macky]

Hi Frank!  Hey, run the numbers-- how many would it take if you went all glass?  Probably a shockingly high number.  I've seen 100-200 or so for sale before, but not more.  The right salvage place might have more, but no deals to had then.

If there was a matching terra cotta pattern, you could have occasional 'skylights' of groups of glass tiles in the otherwise opaque roof... that could be nice, and you'd need far fewer tiles.  You probably only need a fraction of the roof to be glass to let in plenty of light -- 100% might well be too much even if you could.

They do that with metal buildings around here-- replace some of the metal panels with translucent fiberglass (under the eaves)-- lets in a lot more light than you'd expect.

Can you picture occasional horizontal stripes of glass in a red tile roof?

OK you American entrepreneurs, figure out the big brand/common size of Spanish tile sold out west, and start producing glass replacements (code compliant of course, making sure they are as strong/tough as terra cotta, which isn't asking for much)...

--ian

[Frank]

Took some hunting but these list the 2 types of flat tile and over 50 shaped tiles:

http://www.larochere-bati.com/pdf/TUILES%20DE%20VERRE.pdf

Seem to be sold in packs of 6 or palettes if 144. But when bought singly in shops are priced €14 - €19 a piece about ten times that of the terracotta tiles, weigh is in the range 3 - 4kg a piece

We would need 1050 to do one side of the barn roof.

Mind you found an interesting glass brick construction
http://pdf.archiexpo.com/pdf/incat/glass-bricks-58393-37925.html

And some even more interesting bullet proof glass bricks!
http://www.archiexpo.fr/prod/poesia-div-di-vetreria-resanese/brique-de-verre-54947-191916.html