Gazebo (Azumaya) Roof: Lightweight Tile Sheet | 東屋 屋根 | Santiago

Mr Quyen - Santiago. Posted 03/11/2026

Garden gazebo with a blue tile roof among plants, Vietnam

What roof suits a garden gazebo or azumaya?

A gazebo (東屋, also written 四阿) has open sides and usually no ceiling, so whoever sits in it is right under the roof, and the roof is the part you see from the house. Ceramic tile gives the look but puts a lot of weight on four slim posts. Thin metal sheet is light, yet hot in summer and loud in rain.

Santiago's ASA/PVC tile sheet shows rows of curved tiles, one every 219 mm, and weighs about 5.4 kg per m² of roof at 2.5 mm. In Santiago's tests the space under it stays 6 – 8 °C cooler than under bare metal sheet and rain noise is about 80% lower. There is no metal in it, so a gazebo beside a pond or near the sea has nothing in the roof that can rust. The sheet is made of four co-extruded layers with no glue, with an ASA top layer over virgin PVC.

How is a pyramid roof put together with tile sheets?

Most gazebos have a pyramid roof (宝形造り): four triangular faces rising to one point, with a hip running from each corner up to the peak. Some have a hip roof (寄棟) with a short ridge at the top instead. Each face is covered with tile sheets laid from the eave upward and cut along the hip line on site. The hips are then covered with hip ridge, the point where they meet with a four-way piece, and the lower end of each hip with a ridge terminal. A hip roof uses a ridge cap along its short ridge and a three-way piece at each end of it instead of the four-way piece.

All of these pieces come in the same colour as the sheet. Our article on pyramid roofs on gazebos and kiosks shows how the four-way piece closes the peak.

What slope should a gazebo roof have?

Keep the roof between 20% and 45%, which is a 2-sun to 4.5-sun pitch (2寸〜4.5寸勾配) in Japanese terms. That is Santiago's installation range for the tile sheet, and the warranty assumes it. Within the range the choice is about looks and height: a steeper pyramid shows more of the tile rows from the ground, and a lower one keeps the gazebo shorter in a small garden.

Purlins run parallel to the eaves, less than 700 mm apart: 440 or 660 mm for the tile sheet, so that one purlin sits under the foot of a tile step. On a pyramid roof the purlins get shorter towards the peak, where they meet the hip rafters.

Worked example: how much sheet for a 3.0 m × 3.0 m gazebo at 40%?

Take an azumaya with posts 2.4 m apart each way and a 0.3 m eave overhang on all sides, so the roof measures 3.0 m × 3.0 m in plan, with a pyramid roof at 40% (4-sun pitch). Each face is a triangle with a 3.0 m eave. Four sheets cover each eave (3.84 m of cover), with the joint between the two middle sheets on the centre line of the face. The middle sheets run almost to the peak; the outer ones stop where the hip crosses them.

The cuts along the hips leave triangular offcuts, so the order has more running metres than the 9.7 m² roof would suggest. Check the lengths against your own frame before ordering: if the post spacing or the overhang changes, the outer sheet lengths change too.

Two-tier open pavilion with a blue tile roof on a steel frame, Vietnam

What does a light roof change for the gazebo frame?

In the example the sheet weighs about 52 kg for the whole roof, roughly 13 kg per post on four posts. Ceramic, clay and cement tiles are much heavier, and a tiled azumaya needs posts and beams sized for that weight.

A light roof has its own point to watch, which is wind. With open sides, wind can get under a gazebo roof and push it upward, so the posts must be anchored firmly and every sheet fixed at 4 – 5 screw sets per m² through the top of the wave into a purlin, never into the valley. In snowy regions the snow on the roof can weigh far more than the sheet. Your builder (工務店) sizes the posts, beams and footings for local wind and snow; Santiago does not publish a snow-load rating for the sheet.

Which colour suits a Japanese garden, and will it fade?

Five colours are standard: dark grey, red, blue, orange and chocolate. Green, white and purple are made to order. If the gazebo stands near a house with a grey tile roof, hold a dark grey sample against that roof in daylight before you choose, since screens and printed charts do not show roof colours reliably. Samples are free; the buyer pays the courier.

The colour sits in the ASA top layer, which showed no colour change after 2,000 hours of artificial UV. The colour is rated for 30 years, real roofs last 25 – 30 years, and the warranty is 10 years for sheets 2.5 mm and thicker installed as Santiago recommends.

Can tile sheets make a tiled roof lighter (瓦 軽量化)?

In Japan, 瓦 軽量化 (making a tiled roof lighter) is usually discussed for houses, often with earthquakes in mind. This article does not give advice on re-roofing a house. Whether and how to lighten a house roof is a structural decision for an architect (建築士) or builder who has looked at the whole building, and Santiago makes no earthquake or fire rating claim for its sheet in Japan.

Where the tile sheet fits is the small outbuilding: a gazebo, a covered pergola, a shed or a bike shelter that should look tiled without the weight of tile on a slim frame. Covering an open pergola turns it into a roofed structure, so it then needs purlins less than 700 mm apart and a slope of at least 20%.

Which rules apply, and how do you order from Vietnam?

Under the Building Standards Act (建築基準法), a gazebo may need a building confirmation depending on its size and location, and in fire-prevention districts (防火地域・準防火地域) roofing materials can be restricted. Check with your builder or the local building office before you order.

Santiago supplies sheets and accessories from Vietnam and sends installation videos; it does not install. The minimum export order is one 40 ft container, about 5,000 m with colours, profiles and accessories mixed, so a single gazebo is bought through a builder or dealer in Japan who imports by the container. The HS code is 3925.90.00. The Japan–Vietnam EPA, AJCEP and CPTPP may give a lower duty rate with proof of origin; check with your customs broker (通関業者). Shipping terms to Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka or Kobe are quoted per order in writing, and every lot comes with a quality certificate (CQ) from a factory working under ISO 9001:2015 certificate ICI-23087.D.

How do tile sheets look on real roofs in sun and rain?

Red ASA/PVC tile sheets are carried up to a house, a flame is put to a stack of sheets, and the short ends on a blue warehouse roof under installation and grey sheets on the factory roller line. A flame test is a demonstration, not a fire rating.

Santiago PVC roofing tiles in real conditions (Santiago video on YouTube).

Short videos for garden gazebos in Japan

Three more English shorts from the Santiago YouTube channel. Each one is about a minute or less.

Frequently asked questions

What slope should a gazebo roof have?

Between 20% and 45%, which is a 2-sun to 4.5-sun pitch. The 3.0 m × 3.0 m pyramid roof in this article uses 40% (4-sun pitch), which gives a rise of 0.6 m.

Which pieces does a pyramid gazebo roof need?

A four-way piece at the peak, hip ridge along the four hips, a ridge terminal at the foot of each hip and eave sealing tile along the eaves, all in the colour of the sheet.

How heavy is an ASA/PVC tile sheet roof on a gazebo?

The sheet weighs about 5.4 kg per m² of roof at 2.5 mm. A 3.0 m × 3.0 m gazebo roof at 40% has about 9.7 m² of sheet, roughly 52 kg. Ceramic, clay and cement tiles are much heavier.

Can I use tile sheets to make my house roof lighter?

Only on the advice of an architect or builder who has checked the whole building. This article covers gazebos and small outbuildings, and Santiago makes no earthquake or fire rating claim for the sheet in Japan.

How much material does a 3 m × 3 m gazebo roof need?

At 40% with a pyramid roof: 8 sheets of 1.752 m and 8 of 0.657 m (about 19.3 running metres), 8.8 m of hip ridge, 1 four-way piece, 4 ridge terminals, 12 m of eave sealing tile and about 39 – 49 screw sets.

Read more

• Synthetic resin roof tile: sizes and accessories (Japanese)
• Pyramid roofs on gazebos and kiosks
• PVC roofing sheet colours
• Ordering roof tile accessories: checklist and example
• ASA/PVC roof tile sheet

Updated 03/11/2026. Santiago Import Export Co., Ltd, Vietnam. WhatsApp +84 935 391 495 (Mr. Quyen), hotline +84 965 437 316 (Mrs. Ly), email salessantiagoroofing@gmail.com.