Brown Fibre Cement Roofing Sheets – Big 6 Profile, Beaver Brown & Van Dyke Brown, 11 Lengths

Almost every UK merchant will sell you a Big 6 fibre cement sheet in natural grey off the shelf. Ask for it in a colour and the conversation changes: prices on application, lead times on application, call us. That is the gap this listing exists to close — both of these browns are stocked, priced per sheet, in every one of the eleven standard lengths, and you can order them at two in the morning without speaking to anybody.

Colour matters more on this product than people expect. A large agricultural or equestrian roof in bare grey reads as industrial from half a mile away. The same building in Beaver Brown or Van Dyke Brown recedes into a hedge line or a hillside, which is frequently the difference between a planning officer in a sensitive landscape signing something off and asking you to think again. It is also simply the difference between a stable block that looks finished and one that looks like a shed.

Two browns, and they are not interchangeable

Beaver Brown is a warm mid-brown with a reddish undertone — it sits comfortably against brick, pantile and older farm buildings. Van Dyke Brown is a much deeper, cooler, near-chocolate brown that reads almost black at a distance on a dull day, and is the better choice where you want the roof to disappear rather than to be noticed. Look at both images before deciding; they photograph closer together than they look in daylight.

Two things to know before you order

The colour is on the top face. These sheets are coated on the weather side, not dyed all the way through. Cut an end and you will see the natural pale grey fibre cement core, which is normal and is how every coloured fibre cement sheet on the market behaves — but it does mean cut edges at verges and around openings will show grey unless they are turned away from view or covered by a barge. Plan your cuts accordingly.

Order the whole roof in one go. Coloured fibre cement can vary slightly in tone between production batches. On a single-batch order nobody will ever notice; on a roof finished six weeks later with a second order, you might. Work out your full sheet count, add a couple for breakages, and order it once.

These sheets are fragile — do not walk on them

This is the most important line on this page. Fibre cement roofing sheets are a fragile roofing material. They will carry the weather and their own service loads for decades, but they will not reliably carry a person, and failures are sudden rather than gradual — a sheet that looks perfectly sound can give way without warning, particularly near a fixing, at a lap, or once it has aged. Never step directly onto the sheets. Use crawling boards or roof ladders spanning at least two purlins, work from a properly specified access system, and treat any older fibre cement roof you are stripping as fragile regardless of how solid it appears. If you are working at height on this material and are not sure your access arrangements are adequate, stop and get them right first.

Technical specification

Frequently asked questions

How many sheets do I need?
Use the 1016mm cover width, not the 1086mm overall width — the 70mm difference is the side lap. Divide the width of your roof slope by 1.016m and round up. For the length, remember any end lap eats 150mm, so two 3050mm sheets lapped give you 5.95m of slope, not 6.1m. Order two or three spares: fibre cement is brittle and the odd sheet gets broken in handling on any real job.

Can I lay these on a shallower roof than 5°?
No. Below 5° water does not clear the laps reliably and will track back under them. If your structure is shallower than that, this is the wrong material and you want a single-ply or liquid system instead.

How should they be stored before fixing?
Under cover, and flat. Coloured sheets in particular need to stay dry and protected before they go up — the transit wrapping they arrive in is not weather protection, and sheets left stacked outside in the rain can mark. Stack them flat on level bearers, not on edge and not on uneven ground.

Will the colour fade?
It is a surface coating exposed to full British weather, so yes, it will soften and weather over the years, more noticeably on south-facing slopes. That is normal for the material and for every coloured fibre cement sheet sold in the UK. What you should not expect is patchiness within a single batch laid at the same time.

What do I fix them with?
Purpose-made fibre cement fixings — hook bolts into steel purlins or drive screws into timber — always fitted through a pre-drilled oversize hole on the crown of the corrugation, never in the valley and never driven straight through. The hole must be larger than the fastener so the sheet can move; over-tightening a fixing is the single most common way people crack a brand new sheet.

What else you will need

• Anti-Condensation Foam-Backed Roof Sheet — if condensation is a problem in the same building
• 80mm PIR Insulated Roof Panel — where part of the building needs to be warm as well as covered
• Aluminium Half Round Gutter System 125mm — rainwater at the eaves
• Freestanding Roof Edge Protection Guardrail Kit — edge protection, which matters more than usual on a fragile roof
• Breathable Roofing Membrane 125gsm — where an underlay is being used beneath the sheeting

Not sure which brown suits the building, or how the sheet count works out on an awkward roof? Send us the slope dimensions and we will work it through with you.