Dutch Barn Roofing History.

Corrugated Galvanized

Iron History.

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The photograph above is to illustrate the modern day use still of CGI roofing, in this case, the photo was taken in Australia, where this type of roofing is still very popular.

Corrugated galvanised iron, or CGI for short was invented by Henry Palmer, architect and engineer to the London Dock Company. Originally made from wrought iron, it proved to be both light and strong, corrosion resistant, and easily transported in flat sheets. It lent itself to prefabricated structures and could be assembled using semiskilled labour. As you can see it soon became a very affordable covering for hay, grain crops and other farm buildings.

In the early days, as shown in the diagram above, how the corrugated iron was nailed to the wooden rafters of a conventional roof structure. Note the way it was nailed at the top of the curve, so that the water would not seep through the nail holes. Eventually, when metal rafters were used nailing was changed to the use of quarter inch bolts with fitted washers.


As time went on and architecture changed, the curved roof for the Dutch Barn became more popular due to the introduction of the iron I-Beam uprights and the all metal truss and rafters which came to the site in kit form. The cold roll forming press was used on the construction site so that a perfect curve could be made.

This old ruin of a Dutch Barn in the photograph above is to give you an idea of how the skeleton framework went together during construction, also you can see how the ends used the corrugated material as well. Also with this type of barn guttering was added with downspouts at either end.