CDDVD Roofing Concept

8/12/2019 CDDVD Roofing Concept

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http://www.instructables.com/id/CDDVD-Roofing-Concept/

Food Living Outside Play Technology Workshop

CD/DVD Roofing Conceptby Jayefuuon February 17, 2010

Author:Jayefuu

I am currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Huddersfield, England, looking at novel techniques in dispersive white light interferometry. Feb - April2012 I was an artist in residence at Instructables in San Francisco. If you get the chance to visit HQ, I highly recommend it. Previously I worked forSteveastrouk designing and building electronics for viscometers. I enjoy climbing, walking, electronics, cooking, woodwork, power tools and bad puns.Quotes I like: You don't have to know everything, if you know where to find it. When you do ask questions, you may look stupid. When you do NOT askquestions, you will STAY stupid.

Intro: CD/DVD Roofing ConceptI needed a use for old CDs and DVDs. My friend runs a website selling media items (mediamad.co.uk) and he gave me a stack of CDs and DVDs that he couldn't sella project of mine that never reached completion. To use them up I thought up this, and after not being able to find it on the web or instructables, I felt obliged to followKiteman's zeroth law.

This method of drilling, arranging and nailing disks works great for any roofing that has wooden board underneath. Structures like sheds, dog houses, lean-tos andporches are easy to cover and it makes a great hard-wearing, long lasting (I hope), cheap and most importantly.... green, method of roofing.

CDs and DVDs are readily available if you scrounge around. Ask friends, post on local sites like freecycle or craigslist, ads in the free local paper; these ways soon adup to thousands if you're happy to do a little walking/cycling around your town to pick them up.

Using this method, you need as few as 120 disks per square meter, and the method of drilling and arranging used means no water runs through the holes in the CD!
http://www.instructables.com/community/The_Laws_a_rebranding_for_newer_members/http://member/Jayefuu/http://member/Jayefuu/http://www.instructables.com/member/Jayefuu/?utm_source=pdf&utm_campaign=titlehttp://www.instructables.com/tag/type-id/category-workshop/http://www.instructables.com/tag/type-id/category-technology/http://www.instructables.com/tag/type-id/category-play/http://www.instructables.com/tag/type-id/category-outside/http://www.instructables.com/tag/type-id/category-living/http://www.instructables.com/tag/type-id/category-food/


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Step 1:Pros and ConsThis method of roofing is a great way to use old and unwanted CD/DVDs. In a lot of places recycling facilities exist, but disks are not an item thrown away often enougwarrant curbside collection and so often they just get thrown away.

If you've got old disks you want to get rid of, first think whether there might be someone able to reuse them before drilling holes in them and tacking them to your shedroof! Software, music and films might be of interest to your friends or families and are often accepted by charity shops as a good product to sell on.

For junk mail CDs and badly damaged or scratched CDs/DVDs, it is better to reuse them than throw them away or recycle them. If they can be of use for another 5 yebefore needing to be replaced then that's better than transporting them to a recycling plant to be melted down and MUCH better than them just taking a trip to landfill.Landfill is a dark, scary place!

Step 2:Disk ArrangementDisk arrangement is critical to ensure that only one hole per disk must be drilled, one nail per disk used and to make sure no water gets through.

It may look complicated at first but once you grasp how to arrange them, it's pretty easy! The animated gif below should help. The second picture il lustrates how thedrilled hole aligns to the disk below, it narrowly misses the disk, covering the hole below. The third picture is my first correct attempt at arranging them on my living roofloor (without the nails of course).

Image Notes1. Artifact of my screenshot. I used Word 2007 to add disks then screenshottedwith windows 7 snipping tool. Finally I made them all into a gif with GIMP.2. You can just about see how the edge of the disk covers the hole of the one


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below it and the nail goes in just above the disk below it. Perfect! It's an easier fitwith real disks, my pictures here aren't quite to scale.

Image Notes1. This is what inspired me, layout out some reject CDs on the l iving roomfloor.

Step 3:Drilling JigFor speed, you need to be able to drill a hole in the same place in the CD consistently, for this I designed and built this jig. It has to be the ugliest conglomeration of wand nails I've ever thrown together.

I found that the hole should be drilled anywhere on the ring where the central clear area meets the foil. This will allow you to nail through the CD without the CD belowneeding a hole in it. The pictures should explain better than I can.

A stack of disks can be push into the jig once the drill bit is centered on the cross, at which point 10 or more disks can be drilled at a time, tipped out and then anotherload done. Easy!

If you don't have a pillar drill, build the same jig then screw a baton across the top with a hole in it in the right place through which to stick your bit. This should be equaquick. I ended up using my Dremel with a plunge attachment and a 3mm metal bit.

Image Notes1. This is where the hole must be drilled on each disk. The line where the foilstarts.

Image Notes1. Back stop. The flat part of my router attachment buts up against here.2. A nail to get the horizontal alignment right. With this setup it only took 15minutes to drill all the disks.3. Block of wood to knock the CDs into alignment.


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Step 4:DrillingThe amount of disks you can drill at once will depend upon the thickness of the jig you've built. I found if I didn't fill the j ig the bottom of my plunge router attachmentwouldn't press on the CDs and they'd rattle as I drilled. My jig fitted 14 disks at a time.

The loose block of wood you can see in the photo is to knock all of the disks into the correct alignment.

Once aligned correctly, drill through the disks quickly, in several plunging motions. Once all the way through all disks, remove them from the jig as soon as possible. Twill have melted together slightly from the heat of the bit. Separate them from each other with a twisting motion. Before I worked this out I tried to prise them apart andcracked a few.

Image Notes1. Back stop. The flat part of my router attachment buts up against here.2. A nail to get the horizontal alignment right. With this setup it only took 15minutes to drill all the disks.3. Block of wood to knock the CDs into alignment.

Step 5:To shine or not to shine?To help you make your mind up whether to nail your disks shiny side up or down, here are some pictures of them both ways up. I personally think the shiny side up loonicer.

Some advantages to shiny side up:- Might keep your dog house or shed cooler in the summer months, always a plus!- The CDs might last longer if they reflect some of the UV rays, we'll see!

Some disadvantages of shiny side up:- May annoy the neighbors when the sun's low.- Some might think it looks silly!


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Step 6:NailingTo hold the disks in place I chose 16mm tacs. They have nice wide flat heads to hold the disks in place without splitting them. The shafts were about 2.5mm so perfecthe holes I had drilled.

For the first layer at the bottom, lay the disks out first before you start nailing to make sure you get the alignment right.

To avoid crushed fingers I found I could push the tacs in to start with then once they stood up unaided, hammer them home with a couple of taps of the hammer. Iexpected splitting of the disks to be a problem, but it didn't seem to be.

Start at the bottom and work your way up, being careful to cover the holes as explained in step 2.

To nail all 135 to the board took me only 50 minutes. A lot slower than roofing with roofing felt, but a lot cooler and greener too!

Image Notes1. Tacs can be pushed in with your thumb until they stand up then hammeredhome with a few taps. Easy! And much quicker than holding it while hammering.


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Step 7:LongevityThe pictures below show the finished concept board. Since I don't have a shed or a dog house I thought I'd demonstrate the concept and test how it holds out against elements so that others can use this knowledge to roof if they wish to.

I have some concerns about the ability of CDs and DVDs to hold up against frost and UV. If you'd like to be kept up to date with how they're holding up, pleasesubscribeto me. I will post a forum topic in April once the frosts are over and then again in August after it's been out in the sun all summer.

April Update: (remind me if I haven't posted it by May 2010)

August Update:


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Comments

50 comments Add Comment view all 202commen

monkeysandllamassays: Jun 19, 2012. 1:37 PM REPNow that we have entered the age of iPods and iTunes I feel I have a lot of CDs that are completely useless. I l ike artsy projects, especially when they serva dual purpose such as roofing. I wonder if any roofing contractorshave had clients specifically ask for something like this? How many CDs/DVDs did youend up using for this project?

Rhamkotasays: Nov 16, 2011. 6:53 PM REPThe UV rays can break down the plastic in the cd's and warp them

hhamilton2says: Oct 4, 2011. 8:34 AM REPThis would also make a great chicken shed roof.

22tpringsays: Sep 26, 2011. 4:21 PM REPOh! Oh! You could use a wall of them in your mini-greenhouse this year to help warm up the vegetables.

Love dem shiny discs!

22tpringsays: Sep 26, 2011. 4:17 PM REPTo respond to a the solar panel idea, you could use the discs to augment an existing solar array but must be careful as to heat loads on the solar panels.You could also try an experiment with parabolic solar arrays (the discs would act as the reflective material to heat up the water which turns it to steam).Yeah, I'm a solar nerdy.

22tpringsays: Sep 26, 2011. 4:14 PM REPReally like this idea...was wondering if you could use the existing hole with a roofing nail (large head) and add something like a washer around the nail heato bridge the gap.I live in the desert, where cd's would not even make it a 1/4 of the year in the sun but my first thought was ELASTOMERIC roof coating over the cd's wouldprotect the surface and add another layer of moisture proofing. Or an aluminum roof coating like those used on mobile homes. I have the perfect project fothis (a small 8 x 10 shed I'm starting to build from a free metal frame) and will post my results when I am done. I have both elastomeric and aluminum roofcoating so perhaps I will try the experiment with both paints on each side of the roof.Have you also thought of just using a product like Liquid Nails to glue down the discs? (Of course, wind being a factor) but again, if you "seal" the project wa paintable roof coating there is no gap for the wind to get under and work its magic.

shortwsays: Apr 10, 2011. 6:39 PM REPI left a hand-full of CD's out side to see what happen.They did not even last 3/4 of a year. The lacquer, the print, the aluminum foil, all came off and left a mess. The only thing that was still ok was the plastic.

If you use it inside like ryanmercer said, then they going to last a long time.

leah_thomassays: Jul 27, 2011. 10:54 AM REPThat's why you remove the label first. I've found that steel wool removes it well while also giving it a really cool effect. Then your just left with the plasticWhile not as interesting before it looks pretty decent if you spray paint abstract designs underneath. My fear with doing it long term outside would be heresulting in warping. I may try this to create small cold boxes for my garden because I'm really curious about how it may come together.

We used this this similar idea on a float one year to make the scales on The Rainbow Fish for the library float. I wish I could find the photos to share.

aalv2003says: Jun 29, 2011. 5:27 PM REPSorry!!! 256 CDs for each square meter...
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aalv2003says: Jun 29, 2011. 5:20 PM REPThan you for sharing your great idea!! Im collecting old CDs to start my BBQ roof right now, but Im having problems with the numbers. You wrote with thismethod will need 120 CDs for each square meter, but drawing the arrangement in Corel Draw I get 424 CDs for square meter... Im doing some wrong?

ryanmercersays: Apr 10, 2011. 9:29 AM REPForget using these for roofing, I want to do this to the walls of a room!

The nerdlingsays: Jun 21, 2011. 10:01 PM REPcool idea

Jayefuusays: Apr 10, 2011. 10:21 AM REPI want you to too. :D

HamenChipssays: May 26, 2011. 8:03 PM REPYour house will become a giant deathray!

Lithium Rainsays: May 16, 2011. 8:23 PM REPHEY UPDATE THIS YOU SAID TO REMIND YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

shortwsays: Dec 25, 2010. 8:25 PM REP

This is a good idea, but..........

Plastic+adhesive+aluminum+sealant=CDCovering a doghouse should be ok.

Using it for a shad or for the house will not or may not pass the building code, which may be different for each state, county or city.If a person get hurt or a property get damaged the insurance may deny to pay for it and you have to pay.There is no fire rating on CD and they will burn easy, therefore there are not suitable for roofing and against the fire code.Shingles have a specific wind load to meet and they glue each other together with the little strip on the back side, CD's would need to be glued together toincrease the wind load, but since CD's are not tested for a wind load they should not be used and are illegal to use as a building material.The reflection of the sunlight from the CD's could make a pilot lose control of a aircraft even more if the structure is close to a airport.It does not have to be concave to reflect, but a big amount of surface would have the same effect than a bright big light assembly like stadium and all lightswould be facing the same way.Or a neighbors building could heat up because of it.This happen with a hotel in reno Nevada. There windows reflected the sun-rays and heated the neighborhood up so bad that there Ac systems could nothandle it, so the hotel was forced to replace there windows plus they had to put a 35 foot tall wall up.

Regular shingles use about 3-4 nails per shingle. How many nails, glue and silicone-glue would you use if you use CD's in place of shingles?

You still would have the same problems if you would use it as a siding material.

This is a good idea, but because of liability and hassles the town officials could give you , I would not recommend this.

ryanmercersays: Apr 10, 2011. 9:26 AM REPparty pooper

tawksays: Jan 27, 2011. 2:33 PM REPThe "Concept," part sounds great.

mechaninjasays: Feb 1, 2011. 9:11 AM REPi think someone already tried this with LPs...

Cahrlotte roofing Contractorsays: Apr 2, 2011. 6:26 PM REPThis is a wonderful way to recycle and be creative at the same time! I love the CD roof idea, it looks cool and stylish for a shed or dog house, maybe I willoffer something like this to my customers!! http://www.room2roof.com

teenabrayensays: Feb 11, 2011. 6:05 AM REPI was looking at this and am trying to think of a way to turn this into a solar panel. Any ideas would be nice.

As well, I was wondering, if you are worried about longevity what about covering this with plexiglass. As this would save from rain getting in the holes orpossible weather cracking the cd/dvd. Just an idea to add a bit of life to this wonderful creation.

I am going to try to add a roof of these to my kids playhouse as it is cheaper and makes use of all these old CD/DVDs that are no longer used and had ads
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and AOL useless information.

theodoorsays: Jan 10, 2011. 10:18 AM REPthis is very awesome for a nice roofingit will stand in community

cupboardwitchsays: Nov 9, 2010. 5:24 PM REPThis is really great!

I've been considering building a bike shelter for our family and I want to do as much of it out of recycled/reclaimed/repurposed objects as possible. I've got ton of ancient software disks that have just been waiting for good use; I think I've just found it.

ironsmitersays: Nov 8, 2010. 8:59 PM REPOur accounts show your august update now 60 days overdue.

To keep your instructable in good standing, please submit payment immediately. We accept check, credit card, and picture/description updates.

Your attention to this issue is greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,Faithful readers.

Jayefuusays: Nov 9, 2010. 12:08 AM REPHa ha. Thanks. I will write the update soon. It's still in good nick.

krunkosaurussays: Aug 23, 2010. 3:31 PM REP

For real roofing requirement this one might not be so suitable but for decorative purposes I think this can be great. We're going to Burning Man (a weekloncamp in the desert) and been looking around for decorative ideas. Not only would lining the roof of our tents look cool with this but it may also help indeflecting the suns rays and keeping the tents a little cooler! In our case we may just create lines of cds using dental floss and overlap each line accordingThanks for the tut!

Jayefuusays: Nov 8, 2010. 2:04 PM REPI'd love to see photos of that :D Thanks

TheNoisyOystersays: Aug 4, 2010. 4:49 PM REPHow about a (temporary?) "roof" to shade the AC for increased efficiency? If only I saw this bfeore I shingled my dog's house...

rapidprototypingsays: May 17, 2010. 4:42 PM REPOn this one I don't think its a good idea for several reasons. if the objective is to re use then shred the polycarbonate and make sheets and use these for

roofing again not going pass fire code . So then look at number of nails screws used to cover a square foot roofing. again way more nails perferating theunderlayment. if you have ever had a leaking roof you want continous coverage. and then maintence you cant walk on these cd withot breaking them. Ok si realize your taliking dog house or shed but recycling them into some building component should not be totally eliminated go further into breaking them dowand reforming them into shingles or into a liner or look at how they make membrane roofing as solar panels. CD's should be properly disposed of you rightthe question is what is the best use its not roofing repeat its not roofing sorry (BAD IDEA)

Jayefuusays: May 18, 2010. 12:24 AM REPAll fair comments and well thought out, thanks. Where I live (England) we have facilities to recycle loads of things but I couldn't find a local place to beable to drop off a load of CDs. I published this ible after having a lecture at uni from someone from Waste for Life, an organisation that seeks to reusematerials and come up with ideas that make it better/easier for those in less affluent countries.

I need to rewrite my last step soon with things I've learned about this and include comments from users. As the title says... it's just a concept. The CDshave been outside through frost and strong sun now and a few have had the foil delaminate but none are cracked yet. When I write up in the next fewweeks I'll be sure to include your comments on maintainability and fire regulations compared to conventional roofing materials.

Thanks!

rapidprototypingsays: May 17, 2010. 4:33 PM REP

EggHead101says: May 3, 2010. 9:23 PM REPSuper idea.I would try a l ittle different idea though.Instead of drilling holes. Use the center hole with those roofing nails that have a rounded plastic washer on them and the have ridges on the nail to helpprevent "Creep" where the nail tends to come back out do to weather changes.I would also an appropriate sealant on each washer. Now you have NO holes.In windy conditions water defies gravity and will blow "up" and under...Great job though. Lets have a hard boiled scrambled egg !! (yes you can - check my egg )
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TKDWILSONsays: Apr 9, 2010. 5:26 PM REPI used to go on scavengerhunts with friends for AOL CDs back in the day. Had thousands of CDs. Probably close to 10,000. Threw them away after I gotout of college. Its a shame. What a good use! I figured at the time, AOL would always use that failing business model. lol

tech-synergysays: Apr 5, 2010. 3:05 PM REPI think its a good idea

shinylisasays: Mar 11, 2010. 5:08 PM REPI wonder how this would be fire rated??I think it looks great.

Jayefuusays: Mar 11, 2010. 11:53 PM REPThanks :) Please vote.

peace, love, artsays: Feb 24, 2010. 10:17 AM REPA possible con : I really don't know what sort of chemicals are used in the process of manufacturing cds, but using them in an outdoor way like this mayleach chemicals into the environment. Just a thought.

Shiftlocksays: Feb 28, 2010. 6:44 AM REPNot at all a concern. No chemicals will be released from the polycarbonate that CDs are made from. It's the same material plastic water bottles aremade of. There is some controvery about whether or not low doses of Bisphenol A can leach out of polycarbonate food containers, and then getconsumed, but it's such an extremely small amount, it's really only a potential health hazard for pregnant women who drink out of polycarbonatecontainers that have been cleaned with bleach (which catalyzes the release of the bisphenol A). It wouldn't be an issue at all in something like roofing

tiles. In fact, tiles made of polycarbonate CDs will leach far fewer harmful chemicals into the environment than traditional modern asphalt/tar roofingmaterials, so that's another bonus to using them for this purpose.

MillenniumMan says: Mar 10, 2010. 8:06 AM REPAaaand... you won't get all those icky pebbles in your gutters either when you go up every two months to clean them.

What about the roof peak? How do you solve that? Are there 45 deg bent CD/DVDs? Even on a small scale like a shed, I'd like to see this done.Millions of these things are discarded each year in landflls and on sidewalks. This would be really cool to see as part of a recycled materials house

Jayefuusays: Mar 10, 2010. 8:10 AM REPI will have an instructable about the peak coming as soon as I gather up more CDs. Subscribe if you would like instructables to send you an emwhen I publish it. :)

GEOD998says: Mar 10, 2010. 6:55 AM REPShiftlock-First I apologize for being off topic-but you bring up a great point with the bleach catalyzing the BPA's release.Question-will cleaning

polycarbonate with peroxide also cause this reaction?-or is it only the chlorine from the bleach and not the oxygen?Thanks for the info

Shiftlocksays: Mar 10, 2010. 11:19 AM REPIt's actually the alkali property of the bleach that catalyzes the release of the BPA, so other alkali cleaners, like ammonia-containing solutions,should also be avoided. This was first discovered when a lab tech used strong alkali cleaners on polycarbonate lab containers. The containerswere used in experiments involving rats, and endocrine disruption in the rats was observed. They traced it back to the bisphenol A release fromthe cleaned containers.

With regard to your question about cleaning polycarbonate with H2O2, it's a mild acid, so it's perfectly fine to use on poly containers without feaof BPA release. Alcohol-containing solutions are also safe.

GEOD998says: Mar 10, 2010. 12:26 PM REPShiftlock-thanks for the info-we have tropical birds and have switched over to stailess bowls-except for 2 and that has been a point ofcontention for some time now

Jayefuusays: Feb 28, 2010. 6:54 AM REPThanks, that's useful information :)

Jayefuusays: Feb 24, 2010. 10:55 AM REPCDs are made from polycarbonate, a material often used for roofing conservatories. Can't imagine it'll be a problem but worth doing some research onThanks

Pablojrsays: Mar 5, 2010. 3:07 PM REPWhat happens if the Cd's crack and fall down? sharp glass falling down isnt the safest thing...
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Punkguytasays: Mar 9, 2010. 10:56 AM REPSince when is soft, malleable, polycarbonate called glass?

rpbsays: Mar 9, 2010. 1:52 AM REPGreat idea/instructable. One thing that worries me is that there doesn't appear to be much overlap of each CD over the hole in the CD further down the rooWouldn't you find driving rain (hey, I live in England!) gets blown under the CD lips and through the CD holes below, and onto the roof board?

It would use more CDs, but I'd be tempted to drill the nail holes nearer the edge of each disc and overlap them a bit more.

Jayefuusays: Mar 9, 2010. 7:07 AM REPRainy at the moment here isn't it!

It's definitely worth thinking about. It'd depend on the pitch of the roof as to how overlapped they'd have to be to protect against driving rain. As soon asget some more CDs I intend to experiment with welding disks together with a soldering iron to make up larger tiles. This should cut down on the amounof nails and time needed to roof if 30cm x 30cm tiles can be whacked on at a time.

fuzvulfsays: Mar 8, 2010. 9:59 PM REPNice instructable, looks sorta dragonish, where was this instructable when AOL was sending me 4 of these things a week? LOL

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