Roof Maintenance Tips to Protect Your Home

1. Keep Excess Water Off

One of your roof's primary jobs is to keep water out of your house, but your roof needs your help to get rid of the water that falls on it. Make sure to keep your roof's gutters and downspouts in tip-top shape so that it can drain properly, and trim your trees so that they do not hang over the roof, dripping water and shedding leaves into the gutters.

2. Conquer Moss

Keeping your trees trimmed away from the roof will make the roof less friendly to moss by minimizing moss-welcoming shady areas, but moss may still grow. Use Wet & Forget to safely and gently remove any moss on your roof, and re-treat at the first sign of new growth to prevent moss from coming back.

3. Check Your Insulation

Good attic insulation helps keep your house warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and it also helps protect your roof. A good layer of insulation on the attic floor with no gap for air to get between the house and the insulation is a must. This prevents big temperature exchanges between the house and attic, which will cause damaging water condensation on the underside of the roof

4. Do a Yearly inspection

Check your roof at least once a year, preferably in the spring, for any signs of damaged or lifted shingles, moss growth, or other problems. If you don't feel comfortable checking the roof yourself, you can hire a roofing professional to do the inspection.

5. Maintain Good Ventilation

Like insulation, good attic ventilation will also protect your roof from damage caused by water condensation. Without good ventilation, water vapor can cause the roof sheathing and rafters to rot and can even damage the shingles. Make sure your attic has good, unobstructed vents with screens to keep birds out. Ventilation fans are available for larger attics.

What is Roof Flashing?

What is flashing?

Flashing is a construction detail used to seal and protects joints in a building from water penetration. The joints created by the intersection of the roof and roof mounted structures and projections, such as parapets, hatches, skylights, chimneys, vent stacks, or towers, are among the most vulnerable areas of roofing systems. They constantly expand and contract in response to changes in humidity and temperature. Greater the number of such projections, greater the potential for leaks.

Roof flashing represents a very simple and intuitive engineering technique that has been known for hundreds of years. The whole idea depends almost entirely on gravity. If the flashing has been installed correctly, gravity will work with the flashing material to shed the water onto the regular roofing materials, where it is then directed harmlessly to the ground. Roof flashing is commonly used around chimneys, fan vents, plumbing vent stacks, and other items that project out of residential roofs.

Green Roof Benefits

• With green roofs, water is stored by the substrate and then taken up by the plants from where it is returned to the atmosphere through transpiration and evaporation.
• In summer, depending on the plants and depth of growing medium, green roofs retain 70-90% of the precipitation that falls on them; in winter they retain between 25-40%. For example, a grass roof with a 4-20 cm (1.6 - 7.9 inches) layer of growing medium can hold 10-15 cm (3.9 - 5.9 inches) of water.
• Green roofs not only retain rainwater, but also moderate the temperature of the water and act as natural filters for any of the water that happens to run off.
• Green roofs reduce the amount of storm water runoff and also delay the time at which runoff occurs, resulting in decreased stress on sewer systems at peak flow periods.

Roofers Lingo

Algae Discoloration: A type of roof discoloration caused by algae, also called fungus growth.

Blisters: Bubbles that may appear on the surface of asphalt roofing after installation.

Asphalt Shingle: a shingle manufactured by coating a reinforcing material (felt or fibrous glass mat) with asphalt and having mineral granules on the side exposed to the weather.

Caulk: To fill a joint in order to prevent leaks.

Counter Flashing: That portion of the flashing attached to a vertical surface to prevent water from migrating behind the base flashing.

Deck or Decking: The structural “skin” of a roof over which roofing in applied. Most new homes have decking made of plywood.

Flashing: Pieces of metal or roll roofing used to prevent seepage of water into a building around any intersection or projection in a roof such as vent pipes, chimneys, adjoining walls, dormers and valleys.

Gable Roof: A type of roof containing sloping planes of the same pitch on each side of the ridge. A gable roof typically contains a gable at each end.

Granules: Ceramic-coated colored crushed rock that is applied to the exposed surface of asphalt roofing products.

Gutter: The trough that channels water from the eaves to the downspouts.

Overhang: That portion of the roof structure that extends beyond the exterior walls of a building.

Parapet: A low protective wall that extends above the roofline or balcony for support.

What do you mean by a “green roof“?

Depending on your budget, different materials can be used in your roofing project which is considered “green”.

Green roofing doesn’t mean that your roof has green things growing on it.  In fact, unless your roof is built to support plants, no plants should grow on your roof as they deteriorate the materials.

Green roofing means that a roof has been created using environmentally friendly materials or in an environmentally friendly way.  For example, metal roofing is often considered “green”.  Using recycled materials is often considered “green”.  There are many ways to go green and some of these ways include tax benefits.  This is something to consider if you are getting your roof re-done.

ThermaCote - is a sprayable ceramic coating that will provide true protection from the thermal exchange of temperature from solar roof loads, industrial manufacturing equipment, or commercial HVAC systems and even residential roofs.  ThermaCote® provides superior solar reflectance (90+% of all UV rays), eliminates thermal bridging between structural building components, eliminates the expansion and contraction of dis-similar building materials, and most importantly reduces the thermal BTU gain that costs you money.

Additionally, ThermaCote is a GREEN product that is water based, stops rust, seals surfaces and can be applied to most surfaces without primers or additional chemical preparation.

Why Your Roof Is Leaking

• Windowpanes Can Be a Problem:

Although built in windowpanes can really add dazzle to a home and let in natural light, when not built properly they can cause a lot of problems. If they are too old or haven’t been updated recently, they can easily let water into the home.

• Flashing is Most Common

Flashing is the most common reason that roofing will get leaks. Sometimes flashing is poorly installed which makes it highly susceptible to leaks. If it’s not the installation, it could be a bad quality product or perhaps affected by high winds or weather damage.

• Age of your roof

Think about how long you’ve had your roof for. How many years has it been? How good of a job did the last contractors do? Roofs that were built fifty years ago were made with much different materials and were much less durable than what is used today.

• Check Your Closures and Shingles

Material such as roof fasteners can easily become damaged or pulled up after a heavy storm or high winds occur. When the fasteners get pulled up, water is easily able to get into the underside of the roof itself and cause other problems.

• Workmanship

Many roof leaks are caused by poor workmanship and less-than-professional contractors. To avoid the entire issue, never hire someone without first checking that they have successfully completed roofing projects similar to yours in the past and that their previous customers were satisfied.

How to choose roof coating

Choosing to use a roof coating system over a tear-off and new roof installation is cost effective. Labor fees are minimal because several steps are eliminated allowing for a much shorter production time and landfill fees are avoided altogether. The ThermaCote roof restoration or roof maintenance systems are non-intrusive, creating minimal disruption to the building occupants during construction. This allows your business to remain open, conducting sales and business as usual. There is no need for a costly and timely roof tear-off/new roof install when you can achieve the same results with greater benefits. Less time, less cost, and a seamless membrane to solve your roofs particular issues are all gained while keeping your business operations in motion, allowing you to make money during the install. There is no easier, better choice than to restore your failing Hypalon roof with one of our roof coating systems!

Best Solution for Roof Repairing!

ThermaCote acrylic roof coatings are best alternatives for repairing roof leaks on metal roofing. They are eco-friendly and also available in liquid format. These roofing materials designed to permanently repair persistent roof problems such as roof breaks.

Energy-efficient acrylic energy saving coatings is in popular among marketers as well among the customers. Rising electricity bills and the effects of urban heat landmasses have made white, reflective roof systems the product of choice for most roof maintenance applications. Using energy-efficient roofing materials results in cooler roof surfaces and less energy spent for air conditioning.

White, water based acrylic roof coatings provide the highest reflectivity and the best longevity at the most economical price.

What are roof coatings?

A roof coating is a monolithic, fully adhered, fluid applied roofing membrane. It has elastic properties that allows it to stretch and return to their original shape without damage.

Typical roof coating dry film thickness vary from paint film thickness to more than 40 dry mils. This means a roof coating actually becomes the top layer of a composite roof membrane and underlying system. As such, the roof coating is the topmost layer of protection for the membrane, receiving the impact of sunlight (both infrared and ultraviolet (UV), rain, hail and physical damage.

Benefits

Roof coatings are seamless and when installed correctly, can solve roof leaks on almost any type of roof substrate.

There are exceptions: "professionals do not recommend using cool coatings over existing shingles. This technique can cause moisture problems and water damage because the coating can inhibit normal shingle drying after rain or dew accumulation, allowing water to condense and collect under the shingles." 

Field-applied reflective roof coatings can extend the useful life of nearly every roof substrate keeping a roof surface cool and providing a level of protection from the sun and weather.

However, coating asphalt shingles and built-up composition roofs requires more caution. The National Roofing Contractors Association’s director of technical services has stated "The roofing industry is aware of a number of issues that could have negative consequences for field application of coatings over asphalt shingle roof systems. Anyone considering this type of application should be aware of the concerns so they can weigh them against the benefits claimed in coating product promotional materials." 

Roof coatings can add 25 years to the service life of a roof and reduce the amount of discarded roofing materials that end up in landfills. The infrared image on the right shows "175°F" on the uncoated (black) section of the modified bitumen roof. The coated (white) section is "79°F". Field studies have shown that cool roof coatings can lower rooftop temperatures and reduce air conditioning bills.

The Necessity of Cool Coatings for Concrete

A discovery fundamental to the building construction issue is concrete. It is an ancient Roman creation that was a revolution to construction which when reinforced with steel enabled towers and expressways to come into being. Did you know that concrete stores hotness from the sun and it heats up our air significantly due to its universal use? Did you know that it deteriorates slowly to probable failure at some point in its life span? Unless it is coated, it will eventually fail and need reparation or replacement due to water deterioration to the strengthening rebar. As it is now, due to the scale and widespread nature of its use, concrete is a major contributor to the “Urban Heat Island Effect” since unpainted concrete acts as a thermal heat sink in all sun exposed locations and “re-radiates” the thermally accumulated sun’s radiation into the atmosphere after the sun goes down. The overheated air in cities and suburbs catalyzes more air pollution by chemical reactions which occur as the atmospheric temperatures increase. Massive carbon pollution further occurs from generation of the electricity at fuel-burning utility plants supplying the energy to run air conditioners inside millions of such buildings into the night.

How Do I Know if the Roof Coating Coverage is Correct?

This is an important question because many roofing provisions and warranty policies require a specific number of dry coat thicknesses to be applied on the structure. To ensure your roofcoating exposure is correct, you will need a wet mil gauge and the volume solids of the roof coating you are using.

What do you mean by wet mil gauge? A wet mil gauge is a tool that is used to define the thickness of the wet coating after it has been applied to the roof surface. It is simply a gauge with points that is pressed into the elastomeric roof varnishes immediately after it has been applied on the roof. The device is then withdrawn vertically with coating stuck to some of the points. You want to note the deepest points having coating on it and the next deepest points that do not have coating on it. The true wet film thickness is somewhere between the two readings. Once you have determined your wet mil thickness, you then need to know the percent solids by volume in the coating. The wet film thickness is then multiplied by the percent of volume items to give you your dry film width.

Although it is a relatively simple procedure to figure out the actual dry film wideness of your roofing structure, there are three important factors to consider having the proper roof coating coverage for your building or house. First, is the measurement of the wet film thickness immediately after the application of the roof varnishes to ensure the coating does not evaporate or dry, as this would give you wrong measurements. Second, is the wind loss factor when applying roof coatings. A 20 mph winds may result into a loss of 20- 30% of the coating essential. Last, is the need for extra material that could be from 3- 10% of the overall amount of coating required for the structure to account for thickness variations in the applications as well as for the miscellaneous coating remains in the lines and in the vessels.

Achieving the proper roof coating coverage is a very significant step in applying a roof coating process to any building. 

Long lasting Paints for Roofs!

In Australia, there was a huge demand for long-lasting, effectual, cool coatings for metal and tile roofs that could be economically field-applied to houses in the vast Australian continent. We chose acrylic energy saving coatings which are bit expensive but are really very effective. This coating is also comes in liquid format which is very useful while application. A benefit of this coating is that they add 12 to 15-year lifespans to your roof which is cost-savings benefits with twice the lifespan of standard paints. They cooled the buildings dramatically by reflecting away the majority of the sun’s radiation and by releasing a very high percentage of the heat that did find its way into the underlying substrate materials. This is called thermal emissivity.

Other benefits were that these reflective paints required no special processes to apply, while being largely more environmentally friendly and lower in odour. This coating is IR reflective, low toxic in nature, with low Volatile Organic Compounds unlike the liquid, organic-based standard paint tint systems.