A NEW ROOFING.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1455, 1 June 1912, Page 15

A NEW ROOFING.

ITS AESTHETIC AND ECONOMIC QUALITIES. Mr. T. J. Larkin, representative of the Patent Vulcanite Roofing Company of Chicago, IT.S.A., spared five minutes yesterday to tell a Dominion reporter that he had corao to New Zealand to introduce the new Patent Vulcanite Roofing Company s manufactures, which are said to possess qualities which architects, builders, and house-owners find difficult to resist owing to their aesthetic and economic virtues. Mr. Larkin, who is the foreign salee manager of the company, says that he was attracted to New Zealand on learning that there were jio businesses solely devoted to roofing. In America every little hamlet of 500 people has its roofing expert, and the place looks all the better for it. He will advise you what kind of roofing to use which best suits the style of building— and he never recommends a thatch of cornstalks or old iron. No, it is up-to-date roofing which is clean, picturesque, absolutely weather-proof, and fire-resist-ing. Though tho new roofing that is being introduced by Mr. Larkin is vulcanite it has no vegetable nibber in its composition, is not combustible, and is accepted by the insurance companies as <i , material as h're-rosisting as slate. In colour it is either a dark grey or red, and as the colour does not "wear" it saves its cost in a few years by not requiring' the attention of the painter. In composition it is a flexible sheet of long fibre wool felt, thoroughly saturated with a high-grade asphalt and coated -with a mineral rubber in which is embedded an oven surface of fine crushed lock. Not only is the new Patent Valcahite roofing obtainable in sheets, in which form it is used for flat or slanting roofs, of warehouses, stores, residences, seaside, and country bungalows, and outhouses, but the same material prepared as what are known as "ornamentiles" bring tho new roofing into use in, a hundred other ways lin.buildintr, in the form of shingles, tiles, or slate slabs. The mnnnfacturers claim that the mineral substances used in its composition absolutely guarantee it against rottinß. In a test that was made by the British Government the vulcanite roofing was subjected to a heat of InOO degrees Fahrenheit, but showed no sign of damage. Flames applied (o it failed to ignite the substance. Tho company operates twenty-six fac-, tories scattered all over the world—United States, Canada, Germany, England, Ireland, and Egypt.' They at present hold a big contract to supply roofing for all new buildings erected by tho British Government in Great Britain and Egypt, hence the largely-increased number of facMr. Larkin has arranged with Messrs. .Tohn Duthie and Co., Ltd., to control the local agency.