Spanish Walls

[elder moz]

Can anyone help me, I have recently returned from Spain and while I was there I couldn't help noticing that all the exterior walls that separate gardens and adjacent properties are finished at high level with what looks like half round ceramic channel of pipe.

They have been installed in continuous rows on an angle obviously so rain falls of them. They are about 9-12" long and the only thing like them I have seen in the UK are baby ridge tiles.

Does anyone know what they are called and can they be bought in this country?

 

[TexMex]

hello elder moz and welcome.
I think the tiles you are on about are called "overs and unders". They are roughly the shape of a cylinder that has been split down the middle. They are slightly tapered (ie the imaginary cylinder they are cut from would be slightly conical). This allows them to be laid in an overlapping pattern that seems to match your description.

When they are laid on a roof, they are put up in two layers. The first layer has the cup shape uppermost. This covers the roof with valleys running from the ridge down to the gutter. The second layer is laid with the arched side uppermost, and the raw edges facing down into the afore mentioned valleys (up the same way as you saw them in fact).

I've had a quick search on google but I can't seem to find a supplier in this country.

 

[Steve]

Elder Moz, what ideas do you have in mind for these tiles?

I think they have to be laid on a concrete roof, bonded with cement, i cant see how they would work on a wooden battened roof (the norm in this country).

This is why they are so popular in Spain, most of their buildings are concrete cubes (something frowned upon in this country, yet on property programmes abroad, they say these concrete bunkers are full of character because they are in spain)