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Who Might You Find Up on a Roof Near You? More People Than You Think

The next time you are going through town take a few seconds to look up at the rooftops around you. You might think that these are deserted areas with no human life on them but there could be more people up there than you think.

Steeplejacks

You don’t hear a lot about steeplejacks these days, do you? To be fair, you probably never heard an awful lot about them in the past either. This type of worker carries out repair jobs at great heights, and this sometimes means fixing rooves on churches and such like. The job was made sort of famous in the UK for a while thank to Fred Dibnah, who even got asked on Desert Island Discs once. There are no signs of the next celebrity steeplejack breaking through just yet. Maybe someone could come up with the idea of a steeplejack reality show to find the next one.  

Green Roof Gardeners

The trend for green, living rooves means that there are now far more buildings with plants and shrubs on top of them. In many cases these are left to grow wild and completely unchecked. However, in other cases they are well looked after. Of course, this means climbing up onto the roof and doing some gardening. For people living in an apartment in a big city this can be one of the few ways of finding a space to plant some vegetables or to grow some flowers.

Solar Panel Installers

Getting free energy through solar panels is a fine way of going green but who will fit the panels to your roof? As more homeowners and business owners are won over by the benefits of solar power we can expect to see ever more workers up there fitting these panels. It is a job you can do yourself but you might feel more comfortable getting an expert to do it for you.

Roof Repair Workers

After a bad storm you are likely to see a few roof repair workers from the likes of Marcus Roofing up there replacing missing tiles or doing other essential jobs. The roof on your home is such an essential part of the overall structure that you simply can’t neglect to get any repair work carried out as soon as possible. Even if there haven’t been any high winds or other extreme weather lately it is always a good idea to keep an eye on the current condition of your roof.

Santa Claus

He doesn’t spend a lot of time on each roof but I can’t get the image of Santa Claus up on the roof out of my mind. This guy might only step on your roof for a couple of minutes once a year but your kids would be awfully disappointed if he didn’t turn up one year.

Photographers

If you are a keen photographer then where in your house is the best place to take some snaps from? If you have access to your roof then you will find that the views from here are almost certainly a lot more extensive than from down below. For example, if you can never take a good picture of the sunset from down below then you might find that by going up a bit higher you get a much more spectacular snap. In fact, if you love to take photos then you might like to ensure that your next home has a section of flat roofing which you can access for exactly this reason.

Golfers and Football Players

Golf is traditionally seen as a sport which is played at ground level, and rightly so. Having said that, doesn’t the idea of hitting a few shots up on a rooftop sound like a great idea? I guess that playing golf up on a roof top must be kind of weird at first, as you try to get used to the different view and perspective. In the news right now are some stories about people building a golf facility on top of parking facilities in Minneapolis. However, this won’t be first rooftop golfing facility on the planet. There is a famous one in Tokyo, while on the roof above Selfridges in London is a rather strange looking mini golf course. Golf isn’t the only sport played on rooves either. A rooftop football pitch was recently built for deprived kids in New York and Gary Neville is talking about adding one onto his new hotel next to Old Trafford. If you want to play just about any sport from a stunning location then all you need is a big roof and a lot of imagination.

What other types of people have you seen up on a roof lately?

Bill Northman is a roofing industry expert who spends a lot of his time looking up to see what interesting things he can see.