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At Family Roofing, we take great pride in our experience, expertise, quality and customer service. It is our mission to provide excellent workmanship and complete customer satisfaction from start to completion of a project. Our reputation is based on service, safety and quality, regardless of how large or small the job.

 

SOLUTIONS TO COOL YOUR ROOF DURING SUMMER

Who doesn’t love the warm and inviting the spring and summer season?   It’s a time to go out and have fun under the sun, enjoying the beach and exposing ourselves to nature.  At the same time, it’s an opportunity to make improvements in your home, such as renovating, general cleaning, etc.   Everyone loves this time of year except a homeowner who’s finding it difficult to keep his home cool during the warm summer season.   With the thermostat turned lower and an ever-increasing electric bill, homeowners now look for foolproof and easy ways to keep their homes cool.

Roofs are constantly exposed to different weather elements and one of them is the unpleasant summer heat.   Some roofs fail to reflect the heat and instead absorb it from the summer sun, causing the house to be a walk-in oven for its residents.   There are solutions to cool your roof during the summer season.

Keeping your roof cool during the summer is essential if you want the rest of your house to remain cool.  Most of the sun’s heat is absorbed through the roof, which means you’ll need to somehow prevent that light from reaching the roof.  The best part is that many of the most effective sunlight-blocking methods are all-natural.

Here are 5 ways to keep your roof cool in summer naturally:

• Install shingles with high solar reflectance.
• Coat your shingles with tiles or aluminum.
  
• Install a radiant barrier. 
• Cover your roof in a thin layer of rocks. 
• Create a rooftop garden. 

Choose the right materials to keep your roof cool.

One of the best and easiest ways to ensure your roof stays naturally cool in the summer is to make sure you’re using the right materials.  It is currently estimated that as much as 90% of American houses have roofs that are designed in such a way that they trap a lot more heat than they should, and this usually makes these roofs a lot hotter than their general vicinity.

Some materials like asphalt shingles have low solar reflectance (around 30%) and higher emittance, while others like metals have higher reflectance (over 70%) but lower emittance.  Of course, asphalt roofs are a lot cheaper to install compared to metal roofs, but in the long run, the latter could end up saving you more money in electricity bills.

Choose the right coating for your roof.

Besides choosing the right material for your roof, you can also apply an extra layer of reflective coating that improves the overall solar reflectance Index of your roof. This option is particularly practical for people who don’t want to spend a lot of money re-doing their roofs altogether.

Tiles

One great and almost ubiquitous example of a great reflective coating are tiles.  Tiles are popular for multiple reasons.  Not only do they add to the show of your house, but they also have a high solar reflectance index (more than 50%).  They have a particularly high thermal emittance (more than 80%) and are also very durable and relatively cheap to install.

White Roof Coating

Another great reflective coating is a white roof coating.  This is an opaque white coat of some polymeric materials that covers the top of your roof, adding to its reflectivity. The reflectivity improves as you make the coat thicker, and on average, a white roof coating is able to reflect over 70% of the sun’s heat!

Aluminum Roof Coating

Another popular option is an aluminum roof coating.  Not only do aluminum roof coatings help reflect back more than 50% of the sun’s heat, but they also serve a double purpose in preventing leakage from your roof.

Install a radiant barrier

Another great way to keep your roof naturally cool in the summer involves the use of radiant barriers.  Radiant barriers are basically aluminum foils wrapped around paper, and the best thing about them is that with a little bit of preparation, you can easily install them on your own.

Here’s the process:

1. Go to your attic on a cool day (trust us, you don’t want to be working in the attic during a hot day).

2. Whatever your current roofing arrangement may be, tightly attach a layer of aluminum foil to the underside of your roof.  Make sure you don’t leave any gaps.

3. Once you’re done attaching the aluminum foil, take a roll of paper and attach that over the aluminum foil.

4. The aluminum foil and the paperwork together to prevent the heat from entering the house via the roof.

If installed correctly, a radiant barrier can help reduce the amount of heat that enters your house through the roof by up to 25 percent! So, this is definitely worth considering before you go out and invest in other more expensive options.

Paint Your Roof White

Most homeowners opt to have the traditional dark or pitch black roof finish.   However, painting your roof white could actually help cool down your home by a couple of degrees.   A white roof allows heat to be reflected instead of absorbed.   When roofs are painted with a white solar-reflective coating, up to 90% of sunlight is reflected.  This type of paint is easy to find and readily available.  However, if you opt not to use white solar reflective coating, any simple white paint will work in reflecting sunlight.

White paint roofing does not only help cool your house by reflecting the heat of the sun, but it also prevents heat-related warping and cracking.  This, in turn, could extend the life of your roof.  The best part is that it doesn’t necessarily have to be a complete paint job.  Painting your roof shingles white could also reflect the sunlight and cause a relative cooling in your homes.

 

 

Install A Roof Mist Cooling System

It might sound a little sophisticated and complicated, but a roof mist cooling system is nothing but having a little bit of mist sprayed to your roof, sort of like the garden sprinkler.  This will do the job of sprinkling a certain amount of water at specific intervals.  Once that water evaporates, it can produce a cooling effect on a hot summer day.

Install Roof Ventilation

Ventilation is a very effective way to allow air to circulate and to prevent that extra heat.  Aside from keeping it cool, roof ventilation can also help preserve the quality and durability of your roof and home.  It allows air to move through the system and gets rid of the humidity.  Further, it helps improve the quality of air inside the home, which means cleaner and healthier air for the dwellers to breathe.

Consider Getting A Green Roof

The tips mentioned above do a great job of keeping roofs cool during the summer season.  But if you want a more sustainable and long-lasting solution, you might want to consider getting a green roof.  Green roofs are gaining a lot of recognition and popularity nowadays.  Basically, they are rooftop gardens where vegetation or greenery are grown and maintained.  Plants absorb heat and produce oxygen, so this is a very effective and natural way to reduce heat absorption.  Green roofs can produce a much cooler environment and can improve the quality of air.

Summer is and has always been one of the favorite seasons throughout the year!  Everyone loves that warm, inviting summer heat.  Take these tips into consideration and you won’t have to worry about the inside of your home getting too hot and the excessive use of air conditioning that spikes up the bills!

Insulate Your Attic

Regardless of how efficient your shingles are, some heat is invariably transferred into your home.  If your attic isn’t properly insulated, it’s going to affect the temperature in your home and you’ll need to keep the air conditioning cranked to compensate.  Insulating your attic is one of the most cost-effective ways to prevent temperature deviations and moisture damage — not just in the summer but the winter too.  Insulating goes a long way towards lowering your energy costs. While this is a project you might feel confident doing yourself, keep in mind that gaps in insulation can greatly reduce its effectiveness — consider hiring a professional to help.

Ventilate Your Attic

It seems a little strange to add ventilation to your attic, especially if you’ve made sure it’s well-insulated.  But the science is sound! Attic ventilation works on the fundamental idea that heat rises, and good ventilation means adding two types of vents:

• Intake vents, typically located under your eaves, allow cool air to flow into your attic

• Hot air exhaust vents, placed at the peak of your roof, allow the hot air to rise out

This goes a lot further than effective cooling during the summer, too. The extra airflow also helps keep your attic dry, extending the life of your roof.

Conclusion

Houses can heat up a lot during the summer.  A lot of this has to do with the heat absorbed by the roof of a house.  Fortunately, there are plenty of ways you can keep them naturally cool.

The first thing you need to consider is getting the right materials.  Materials with higher solar reflectance and thermal emittance are preferred.  Alternatively, you could also apply a special coating to your roof that can greatly improve its reflectivity.  You can also bring down the temperature of your roof by adding a layer of rocks or stones or by building a rooftop garden.