The “roof is failing” sensor in a house is typically a homeowner noticing a stain on a ceiling.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to put down sensor tape on the plywood roof deck before the peel-and-stick material, shingles, tiles, or whatever are applied? If there is a leak in the roofing system or flashing and water gets down to the wood layer there can be a notification of exactly where the leak is happening.
Even if mass-produced by our brothers, sisters, and binary-resisters in Asia this wouldn’t be cheap, but I still think it would make economic sense given the cost of a roof ($15,000-$150,000) and the cost of repairing water damage in a society where the average skill level falls each year.
It’s an obvious idea so why hasn’t it been done?
Related:
- patent filed in 2007
- patent filed in 2021 (maybe with a vision of commercial buildings?):
Surprised we made it through an entire installment of Israel vs Iran with no blog post about it. Typical day in the middle eastspun.
A fight between Israel and Iran would be a dog bites man story if Muslims were permitted to keep pet dogs. I have to say that I am surprised at how effective Israel has been operating at long range.
But, but, things have changed more than they usually do:
https://archive.is/zDGBV
It is obvious and reasonable. Builders are not engineers, and I sense that they are very traditional, very sensitive to initial costs, and utterly unconcerned with longevity and maintainability, which are someone else’s problem.
I suspect that they would only do something like that if required by law / code.