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I 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 sell for a 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 follow Kiteman'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 and porches 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 add up 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!
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 and porches 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 add up 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!
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Signing UpStep 1Pros and Cons
This 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 enough to warrant 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 shed roof! 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 years before 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!
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 shed roof! 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 years before 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!
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Love dem shiny discs!
Yeah, I'm a solar nerdy.
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 would protect 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 for this (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 roof coating 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 with a paintable roof coating there is no gap for the wind to get under and work its magic.
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.
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.
This is a good idea, but..........
Plastic+adhesive+aluminum+sealant=CD
Covering 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 to increase 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 lights would 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 not handle 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.
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 or possible 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 and AOL useless information.
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 a ton of ancient software disks that have just been waiting for good use; I think I've just found it.
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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 CDs have 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 few weeks I'll be sure to include your comments on maintainability and fire regulations compared to conventional roofing materials.
Thanks!
I would try a little 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 help prevent "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 )
I think it looks great.
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.