Adobe house roof options include tin, plywood, lumber, logs, bamboo, soil, grass, and torch-on asphalt. Flat roofs are much more common for mud brick construction.
Adobe Flat Roof Construction
Adobe flat roof construction consists of various materials including tin, lumber, logs, bamboo culms, soil, grass, and torch-on asphalt.
1. Tin
I built a small adobe house with a tin roof because here in Thailand the panels are cheap! They cover about 24” by 12′ and are only about $4 each.
I plan to add soil to the tin panels at some point to make it cooler inside, but I have been focusing on the websites for the past four months. It is the hot season here and I got tired of the hard labor every day.
Tin Roof Pros
- And tin is super easy to work with as they are very light and can be cut with aviation snips that you can purchase from any local hardware store.
- The fasteners are screws or nails with a large washer head and a rubber gasket to prevent water from penetrating the tin roof and entering the structure of the house.
The fasteners are installed on the peaks (humps) rather than the valleys where the rain-water collects and runs off. - Most hardware stores sell these tin panels, but if you are in a small town they may need to bring them in from their supplier.
They come in various lengths and since you can create overhangs as long as you want I suggest you build the overhangs to match your selected tin panel length. - This strategy eliminates any waste of tin and you don’t have to cut each one to length.
- The tin is cheap so make sure to overlap by at least two humps, more if you can afford it.
- If leaving the tin roof exposed there are many color options to really make a beautiful home. Choose the same color paint or aluminum fascia to complement the roof color.

Learn through my articles how to make adobe bricks water proof here and advantages and disadvantages, and how many you need, and 10 best anchors for a strong house.
Scott Boyd
Cons
- Thin material and weak when walking on it.
- Potential to rust.
- Hard to transport without a truck, but not much different from plywood.
2. Plywood
Plywood is an option if you are using lumber for the framing material and you cover it with plastic. I would recommend using real plywood or even marine plywood rather than OSB (Oriented Strand Board) and certainly NOT MDF (Medium Density Fibreboard).
This is an expensive option, but if it fits your budget and you have a circular saw (or better yet a table saw) go for it.
3. Lumber
This is the most expensive building material and also the easiest. I was very fortunate that my father-in-law had leftover lumber that I used for the joists and the strapping.
I only have a pitch, or grade, of two bricks from the front to the back.
That is almost seven inches (six for the two bricks and one for the mortar) over nine feet (most of my bricks were destroyed during the wet season while I was at home in Canada working to pay for the next winter trip).
This is a slope of only 0.65, but it has worked just fine and during the wet season, it rains every day and often at a rate of an inch per hour!
And the washer nails here don’t even have the rubber gasket so I was very surprised at how well it works.
Use 2 x 4 – 2” x 12” lumber for the joists on 15 or 24” OC (on center) and 1 x 3 or 1” x 4” for the strapping with the same spacing.
TIP: When walking on the roof make sure to step where there is strapping under the tin panels are you will crush it as they are very thin.
4. Logs
Logs work the same as lumber except they are obviously not all the same shape or size. If you are going to cover it all with soil they nobody will see it so no big deal.
You can leave the logs exposed on the interior for a rustic look if you prefer.
Logs are a much cheaper option and if you are building this for a camp then I am sure you have a chain saw and trees so you are good to go.
5. Bamboo
Bamboo is shockingly strong and I used 25′ long 1.75′ thick poles for framing my round earthbag house. The entire roof system of thatch panels and the bamboo frame sits on only five 4” bamboo poles sitting in concrete around the perimeter of the house.
If there is interest I will write an article about this.
6. Soil
A dam is required at the low ends of the tin panels on the low side (rear) of the house. This can be lumber or a log fastened to the rafter tails with a screen to keep the soil in place and the water to pass.
The depth of the soil needed to keep the interior cool depends on where you plan to build.
If you are not in a hot sunny location twelve inches may be adequate and in hot sunny countries and states/provinces, you may want to start with fourteen inches and see how that works.
If the interior gets hot then fire up the shovel and start humping more soil onto the roof until the interior is a comfortable temperature.
7. Grass
Growing long grass on top of the soil provides more shade for the roof so the interior stays cooler. And if you are not capturing the roof water run-off then the grass will consume some of the rain-water.
This system requires a waterproof design so the rain does not penetrate the grass, soil, and tin panels. Install a couple of layers of thick foundation black plastic on top of the tin panels.
8. Torch-on Asphalt
I never installed this type of roofing so I am not going to write about it. I just wanted to mention it as an expensive and non-environmentally friendly option.
Why Do Adobe Houses Have Flat Roofs
There are many reasons why adobe houses have flat roofs and I believe the pros far exceed the cons.
Flat Roof Advantages
- Easier to collect rainwater from one side of the house rather than two with a gable roof or four with a hip roof.
- Less lumber, logs, or bamboo culms required to construct the roof frame. And the frame can be spaced wide since tin panels are very light, which reduces the frame material required even further.
- Simplicity: When I built the flat tin roof for the adobe building at the farm I did it myself in an afternoon.
I did not even use a ladder. I used a small stool and a small square table to access the top of the lumber framing and hammer the nails to fasten the strapping to the joists. - Easy to extend the tin over all walls to protect the bricks against rain.
With a flat, well not flat but a low slope, you can easily extend the tin panels on all sides without them extending so low that people would hit their heads of them.
With a gable roof, there would need to be a separate framework for a lower pitch that attaches to the walls under the gable roof panels and extend outward to posts and frame.
This is not a huge challenge, but it is much easier with an almost flat pitch. - One advantage that I love is that I can reach the joists so I hammer in many nails and hang tools, cookware, etc. from them. This saves an amazing amount of space and is especially useful for shed and garage construction.
- Another often overlooked advantage is storing a vessel on the roof for water collection and thermal mass.
I doubled up my joists/rafters for this reason, although I have not yet installed the water tank. I plan to add a black one and fill it with water from the solar-powered drilled well system with an automatic shut off valve.
The water will absorb the sun’s heat during the day to help keep the adobe house cool while providing warm water for showers without the use of electricity. - Another benefit of a flat tin that is built strong is that you can install adobe bricks or mud on the flat surface with grass (optional) growing on top.
Tall grass is better as it will create more shade for improved natural cooling. - Handles extreme winds better as there is no high area to catch the wind.
Flat Roof Disadvantages
- Sunlight is likely hitting the roof closer to 90 degrees, which means more heat to protect the interior from.
A gable, or a funky design with overhangs, can protect one side of the house from the sun if situated properly in relation to the sun’s daily arc. - Fugly. A flat roof is just plain ugly and there is no getting around that fact.
- No storage in the attic.
- No solar heat storage in an attic to help protect the living space from the sun’s heat.
A gable roof collects the heat and vents on the gable ends (the two walls that extend to the peak of the gable roof) and potentially in the eave end soffits (between the rafters on the two low sides) to provide ventilation to remove the heat.
That is the information that you need to determine if you want to build an adobe house with a tin roof and how to do it. Send me a message if you need additional information.