Extending the life of your roof

Image Credit: LGC Roofing - Roof maintenance

You can extend the life of your roof and save on summertime air conditioning expenses simultaneously by making sure your attic and garage roofs are properly ventilated. Excessive heat in the summer will degrade asphalt roofing shingles much faster than what they have been rated for.

There is also a significant advantage to your cooling costs in the summer as well - in the summer improperly ventilated attic temperatures can become very hot, and that tends to make your air conditioning work overtime, even with good insulation.

You may be asking "Won't the heat loss in the winter have the opposite effect if I ventilate? Should I seal off my vents in the winter?" The answer is no, for two reasons:

First, the attic heats in the summer due to direct sunlight, not because of the general outdoor temperature. You don't have this effect in the winter. In the winter you have approximately the same temperature in the attic as is outdoors (if well insulated). So sealing the vents accomplishes very little.

Second, the attic needs to have ventilation during the winter for moisture removal. If the vents are sealed entirely you'll run into moisture problems that may not be noticeable until bigger problems result, such as attracting termites, dry rot, or warping that can cause leaks. If there are kitchen or bathroom vents potentially adding moisture to the attic air, the need for proper attic ventilation increases.

Some extra things you can do:

• Make sure there are no tree branches shedding leaves to the roof.
• visually inspect the roof. Many problems can be caught early enough to keep the problem minimal.
• During the first rainy season, take the time to inspect inside the attic for dampness or leaks. If you're doing this yourself, be careful where you step; the drywall cannot hold any weight whatsoever. And bring a strong flashlight, with a small or dim light it's easy to miss something.

With a little attention you can make your roof last years longer, and avoid other expensive problems such as water damage from a leaking roof.

Sources: LGC Roofing, QualitySmith Roofing, Qualitysmith Air Conditioning

Solar Roofing Panels Gain Good Looks

Solar panels and aesthetics merge into these clay tile roof look-alikes. Made by SRS Energy, these tiles are not invisible, but they certainly look fashionable, giving the roof a bit of a high tech feel to it.

Dubbed "Solar Power Tiles", these solar panels are actually easy to install, and can be retrofitted into an existing tile roof. You can install just a section, or you can roof your entire house with these energy producing tiles. A house done entirely in solar panels will look the same over the entire roof, and so it would not be immediately obvious that there were solar panels in use.

Because of their curved surface, Solar Power Tiles outperform traditional flat solar panels when compared by square foot of roof covered.

Looks like fun to us!

Tags: Solar Roofing Panels, Tile Roofing Prices, SRS Energy