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[Markrath]

I've tried building a roof using floors, but it won't let me because I don't have access to enough building material non-economic items. Apparently the only non-economic item I have is some paradise nut wood. But how do I get more? What qualifies as non economic?

[Telgin]

I believe economic building materials means any kind of metal ore, and anything that counts as flux stone.  Less sure about the latter, maybe that was configurable?

Anyway, wood is a good material for floors since it's usually plentiful.  Just chop down a few trees on the surface and you'll quickly have more than you know what to do with.  If you can't or don't want to do that, you can mine out boulders and make rock blocks out of them, which produces 4 blocks per boulder.  Ordinary stone doesn't count as an economic stone.

Additionally, you should be sure that your dwarves have access to the building site, or it will tell you there aren't enough building materials because nobody can reach the building materials from the construction site.  Make sure you have stairs or some kind of scaffolding up the side of the building, so that dwarves can climb up to the roof to build and climb down to reach the materials.

[Markrath]

I believe economic building materials means any kind of metal ore, and anything that counts as flux stone.  Less sure about the latter, maybe that was configurable?

Anyway, wood is a good material for floors since it's usually plentiful.  Just chop down a few trees on the surface and you'll quickly have more than you know what to do with.  If you can't or don't want to do that, you can mine out boulders and make rock blocks out of them, which produces 4 blocks per boulder.  Ordinary stone doesn't count as an economic stone.

Additionally, you should be sure that your dwarves have access to the building site, or it will tell you there aren't enough building materials because nobody can reach the building materials from the construction site.  Make sure you have stairs or some kind of scaffolding up the side of the building, so that dwarves can climb up to the roof to build and climb down to reach the materials.

I do have plenty of stone blocks and plenty of wood, but for some reason only four units of wood count as usable. I don't really have any flux stone here, either. Do I just have to hope no birdman attacks me?

[Ulfarr]

 This is the list of what stones are considered economic.

edit: Seem like your dwarves can't access your blocks then. Check that you have stairs leading to where you want to build your roof and/or that you haven't forbidden said blocks. If you also use doors/bridges, you might have accidentaly blocked access to those blocks.

[Rockeater]

Maybe there's no access from your stocks to the roof.

[Markrath]

This is the list of what stones are considered economic.

edit: Seem like your dwarves can't access your blocks then. Check that you have stairs leading to where you want to build your roof and/or that you haven't forbidden said blocks. If you also use doors/bridges, you might have accidentaly blocked access to those blocks.

Yes, I just realized why this was happening. I had built a stair that went up to the roof, but not one to go down, so the dwarves only had access to some logs that had fallen on the walls.

[PatrikLundell]

This is the list of what stones are considered economic.

edit: Seem like your dwarves can't access your blocks then. Check that you have stairs leading to where you want to build your roof and/or that you haven't forbidden said blocks. If you also use doors/bridges, you might have accidentaly blocked access to those blocks.

Yes, I just realized why this was happening. I had built a stair that went up to the roof, but not one to go down, so the dwarves only had access to some logs that had fallen on the walls.

I use the mental picture of an elevator when making stairs: You need to have a platform on each level you want to access. This is as opposed to a ladder [not a DF general access item, as it's only used for harvesting] or ramp, where placing it against a wall provides access to the top of the ladder, and thus the floor above. Mentally, an "up" stair stands in the center of a tile and either hits the roof or just ends in empty space in a gap in the floor you want to access until you build the "down" component that allows you to reach the steps in the center of the tile.

[Leonidas]

If you only want to go up one z to put a floor on top of a wall, a ramp will do it in one block and one work order, instead of the two required for stairs.

[PatrikLundell]

If you only want to go up one z to put a floor on top of a wall, a ramp will do it in one block and one work order, instead of the two required for stairs.

Provided you don't need to add a wall where you step up, as you can't build a wall on the upper level from a ramp (yes, I know dorfs do that diagonally to the sides, but that only works because they could have stood at the tile directly in front of the ramp). It works for a floor, though, which was to OP issue.

[Garfunkel]

My question is somewhat relevant so I'll add it here.

I have a square wall around my pasture, with a 1-tile wide drawbridge connected to a lever. I built a floor over the bridge. But now as I'm building the 2nd level, to prevent anything from climbing over it, I cannot build a wall on top of the floor. Yet without the floor, there is only empty space in that tile. How can I build a wall over an empty space?

[Bumber]

How can I build a wall over an empty space?

You just need somewhere to stand (in the tile next to it.)

[Admiral Obvious]

One trick I used to build a wall over an empty space was setting up individual wall pieces with a stairwell built along the outer, edge of the wall, since dorfs build walls piece by piece though, it can get complicated, and sometimes needs a constructed ramp built next to each wall piece first.

[Starver]

I have loads of info ready to spout forth regarding higher-level construction. As you can see.

But to build a wall across a gap in a wall-top where a drawbridge (or door, or just a doorway) exists below, without any intention of flooring,/bridging over the 'ceiling' either/both side of thr gap, just ensure that you ask the wall to be built over the gap (and let it happen) before you ask for a wall to be built upon whichever adjacent wall-top(s) you might get that wall built from. It's just a matter of knowing how your construction jobs get 'serviced' and either planning ahead (if you can) or putting in temporary remedial works to deal with the newly-desired extended building plan (if you are adding to a structure and don't want to unbuild/new-build/rebuild things).

With a two-wide gap, that means that each end-wall must remain unbuilt-upon (plus accessible to any suitable dwarf and material) while each of the two gaps are covered, then as each gap-coverer is completed you can (usually, give or take other access issues you might give yourself) build the ealls atop the wall-ends below.

A three-wide gap (or wider), as may be found in an intentionally Wagon-accessible doorway, requires careful building and (if you didn't want it to remain, afterwards) unbuilding of floor or bridge to allow access to build the tricky middle walls from. I usually deliberately choose a differently-coloured stone for such 'scaffolding' so that I can see what I intend to remove.

If building off the side of a bridge, though, realise that a bridge does not support a construction. A line of floors can have an equivalent line of walls designated against them and they will hold in position until the point the walls are all built and you can (in a 'retreating' manner) unbuild the scaffolding floors you don't wish to keep. If you use a bridge (to save on material, and maybe time if you aren't overloading your architect(s), or just to train your architect(s) up for fun/profit) then you need to set to build walls that will hang off the side of non-bridge places (initially the gap-adjacent wall-tops, usually, or the walls you already built there if you put a bridge across a wider gap after the fact) and then only as each hanging wall is completed should you command the next wall that hangs off of the hanging wall. Otherwise you risk building a wall that immediately becomes a cave-in hazard. (Which you can also do deliberately if you want to weaponise it in hitting something nasty below, but beware of the risks to the builder, and also any further tunnels/voids/unbuilt-areas immediately below the floor/ceiling tile being landed upon.)

ASCII diagrams available upon request. It's fairly simple to do, but somewhat less so to explain. At least the way I try to explain it.

[Garfunkel]

Oh, I forgot that a wall can hang over empty space as long as it's connected to something else solid. Thanks!

[Dwarf_Fever]

I've tried building a roof using floors, but it won't let me because I don't have access to enough building material non-economic items. Apparently the only non-economic item I have is some paradise nut wood. But how do I get more? What qualifies as non economic?

I think your question was answered, but wanted to add: if it truly is a roof (and not a floor, ie you won't need to build anything else on top of it, ever) then don't build floors, just build a bridge. It uses far less materials. For a really large roof, build a series of square bridges.