Roofing in Micronesia

The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) spans four states, Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae, from high volcanic islands to small atolls. Traditional buildings used thatch of leaves on lashed timber frames, often on stone platforms, as in Yap's men's houses. Metal sheet now covers most homes, with concrete roofs a significant minority.

Climate and hazards

FSM has a hot, wet tropical climate, so steep thatched roofs that shed rain quickly were the traditional answer.

Roofing history

Nan Madol. Off the coast of Pohnpei, the ruined city of Nan Madol consists of about 92 artificial islets separated by tidal canals, built with massive columnar basalt laid in a header-and-stretcher pattern over coral fill. Megalithic construction began around AD 1180, and UNESCO dates most of the structures to 1200-1500 CE, when the site was the ceremonial centre of the Saudeleur dynasty. Nan Madol was inscribed as a World Heritage Site in 2016 and placed on the List of World Heritage in Danger because silting and mangroves threaten its walls.

Yap. The Rull men's meeting house (faluw), listed on the US National Register of Historic Places in 1976, is a large rectangular building on a raised stone platform with a floor of treated betelnut palm trunks and a steep roof of tropical leaves tied with coconut fibre to bamboo supports.

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Faluw (Yap): men's house on a stone platform with a steep leaf-thatched roof.
• Thatched dwellings on all four states, now a small minority.

Roofing today

The 2010 census recorded 16,767 living quarters: 71.4% had metal or tin roofs, 21.3% concrete, 5.5% thatch and 1.5% wood. Thatch was most common in Yap (355 of 2,311 units, about 15%) and concrete in Chuuk (1,699 of 7,024, about 24%). In Yap, the thatch share had fallen from about 22% in the 1994 census.

Codes, standards and regulation

FSM has no national building code; the Pacific Region Infrastructure Facility has assisted with developing one since 2022.

Notable roofs

• Rull faluw, Yap.
• Nan Madol, Pohnpei (UNESCO, 2016), though its roofs are lost.

Local roofing terms

• Faluw (Yapese): men's meeting house.

Sources and gaps

Information on typhoon damage to roofs: published information is limited. The roofs of buildings that stood within Nan Madol's walls are not described in published sources. No domestic roofing manufacturers were identified.

Few sources describe traditional thatch species and techniques for Chuuk, Pohnpei and Kosrae.