Interlok Aluminum Roofing Tiles

Metal roofing with individually replaceable interlocking shingles looks like tile, slate, even shake roofing. The design line-up from Interlok is quite impressive, and even more impressive once you see it installed.

Made of aluminum and coated to look like various roofing materials, these roofing tiles are installed with all four edges of each tile interlocking, making them extremely secure even in severe weather.

Because of their light weight, they create less of a load on the roof, and aluminum is not subject to cracking rotting or other problems that afflict common roofing materials as they age. Interlok tiles are guaranteed for 50 years, with a transferrable guarantee. They can be installed over some types of existing roofing, but we recommend that if you're going to have this roofing system in place for 50 plus years, you may as well remove any existing roof system, especially if it's starting to give out already.

Interlok can be installed by trained Interlok contractors in the QualitySmith network. They may look easy to install, but installing any roof can be a complicated job, and to ensure the full effectiveness of your installation it’s important you use installers who are experienced professionals.

Tags: Interlok Roofing, Tile Roofing Installation, Metal roofing prices

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

Roofing can be a part of weatherizing too

With all the fuss on weatherization as a part of Obama's ARRA stimulus plan, the type of roofing currently installed is often overlooked. Roofing can be a factor in a home's energy efficiency, too. Some state's weatherization initiatives include attention to roofing and some do not, but as a home owner it makes sense to get the facts. If you're thinking of re-roofing this summer consider the energy savings potential of an energy-star rated roofing material, such as metal roofing.

If you happen to be in the larger group now eligible for stimulus funded weatherization, check with your local providing agency (weatherize.org) to see if they consider roofing a part of weatherization.

The energy savings of a metal roof comes from it's reflectivity of the sun's rays, so this energy savings is just during the summer. If you live in an area where a summer outdoor breeze is typically sufficient to keep things cool, you're not going to want to base your roofing decisions on energy ratings. But for the rest of us, saving on the energy bill during the summer heat wave can help offset the overall cost of new roofing.

The government funded Energy-Star or industry-backed CRRC product ratings are a reliable indicator of a roofing product's solar reflectivity, but some newer metal roofing products may still be energy efficient and yet have not been on the market long enough for an energy star rating. Part of the testing includes evaluating solar reflectivity of a product after 3 years, without cleaning.

Even with these requirements, the current Energy-Star rated roofing products list is 139 pages long as of June 1, 2009. The PDF version of the rated products list is here, if you'd like to browse through it, and the CRRC products are listed at their web site (coolroofs.org) by type and manufacturer (CRRC is a non-profit, participant-funded organization). The predominant products are metal roofing materials and coating products, but there are also some tiles and shingles of various materials that have applied for a rating as well, usually in white because white is a better reflector of solar rays.

Tags: Metal Roofing, Weatherization, Energy-Star, CRRC

Roof shingle cost analysis

Just like buying car tires, you can get cheaper products, and they are not guaranteed to last as long. There are more factors to consider however than just roof shingle prices - typically the durability of the shingle from very cheapest to one grade better easily outweighs the marginally more expensive price. Beyond that, it starts to get a bit more complicated, because other factors begin to play a part in the overall price. Most of the time colors are not going to make a roof shingle cost more, but manufacturers will sometimes use color as a way to get a higher price for their "select" shingles.

More likely though, will be variations in styles, combined with an overall more durable shingle. At this point you have to consider the additional cost as compared with the increased value and good looks of the home.

Fortunately, labor for installing one shingle over another changes very little if at all, so the only cost increase you have to consider is the cost of materials.

You can make it easy on yourself by using a free pricing service like QualitySmith roofing to get several contractor quotes to compare with eachother. Because the contractor knows in advance he is competing with other top-notch local area roofers, everyone generally offers their best price in hopes of winning your business.

residential metal roofs

Residential metal roofs have been around a long time but when a typical metal roof is installed in a residential setting they have been viewed as a low-cost or reserved for extreme conditions such as heavy snowfall - until now. Ironically, a metal roof on commercial buildings use the same material but is viewed differently, often being preferred by architects for their design enhancing good looks.


Now we have architectural metal roofing, combining the maintenance-free and weather-shedding qualities of a metal roof with the wide selection available of metal architectural shingles. Tags: residential metal roofs, residential metal roof, residential metal roofing