The hot summer months are upon us in Texas, and when it comes to keeping your home or commercial building cool this summer, your roof—not your air conditioning system—is your FIRST line of defense.
The heat absorbed by traditional roofs on a sunny day can easily raise temperatures inside the structure, which leads to higher air conditioning requirements and energy costs. Fortunately, the remedy for all this extra heat is relatively low-tech, low-cost, and increasingly easy to find: it’s called a cool roof.
Here are the top 6 ways to cool your roof this summer:
- Metal Roofing – Unpainted metal roofs are naturally reflective, but they tend to hold heat in, so they are generally a better choice for steep roofs than for flat or low-sloping roofs. A factory-applied cool roof coating can improve the heat releasing properties of a metal roof. This even helps so much that some coated metal roofs are able to qualify as cool roofs. A metal roof can be used on both residential and commercial structures.
- The Right Shingle – The right type of shingle is essential in keeping you cool in the summer. Standard fiberglass asphalt shingles can be replaced with cool asphalt shingles containing specially coated reflective granules to help them better reflect sunlight. Shingles are generally not as reflective as any of the cool roof options available for low-sloping roofs.
- Roof Mist Cooling System – If you’d rather enjoy the benefits of a cool roof without the addition of new surface materials or coatings, consider a roof mist cooling system or also called an evaporative cooling system. It uses sensors to measure roof temperature and moisture then sprays an extremely small amount of water across the roof, allowing the water to cool the roof as it evaporates. These are mainly used on commercial roofs, but depending on roofing materials, some are used for residential applications as well.
- Rooftop Garden – A rooftop garden, is a vegetative layer grown on a rooftop. Green roofs shade the buildings from direct sunlight while reducing surface temperatures and surrounding air temperatures through evaporation and transpiration. Rooftop gardens are so effective that the surface of a green rooftop can actually be cooler than the ambient air temperature. Rooftop gardens are awesome additions to large commercial buildings, especially in urban areas where it’s needed most.
- Plant A Tree – Planting a tree can help keep your home or building shaded from the sun and other weather. Just be careful not to plant the tree too close to the house. Also, you might want to invest in a gutter guard system because leaves and other debris will accumulate a lot faster than normal.
- Proper Ventilation – The most important way to keep your home or building cool in the summer is proper ventilation. Wind turbines, soffits, ridge vents, insulation and radiant barrier are some of the most practical and cost affective ways to keep cool. Radiant barrier can easily drop the temperature of attic spaces by 20 degrees or more, which makes your home or building much more efficient at cooling and directly lowering energy costs.
Call Centennial Roofing to learn more about roofing tips during the hot summer weather. One of our roofing professionals would be will be glad to speak with you about some ways we could make your structure more efficient.
We would love the opportunity to serve you and to show you the Centennial Roofing difference! Give us a call today and we’ll schedule your FREE roof inspection! 1-800-766-3227
