How Does The Georgia Heat Affect Your Roof?

Georgia`s climate is hot and humid, therefore there are many factors that affect the roofs, both external (sun exposure, rain, wind) and internal (vapors, moisture, high temperatures). For these reasons, the efficiency of the roof is decisive for maintaining the interior comfort. A watertight roof improves the efficiency of thermal insulation, limits the risk of condensation and helps you make significant energy savings while maintaining the thermal comfort.

It is well known that wearing a white shirt instead of a black shirt, on a hot summer day, will be considerably more comfortable, as white does not absorb heat. This also applies to roofs. The sun affects Georgia roofs in different ways, but the cold roofs reflect the sun’s rays and decrease the need to use the air conditioning in the summer. Cold roofs represent a category that includes light colored roofs as well as roofs made of reflective materials (e.g. metal roofs).

Lawrenceville roofing company

Nowadays, manufacturers are also considering another benefit of materials with reflective properties: they slow down the effect of global warming. These types of roofs installed in the largest cities of the world would create a significant cooling effect, according to the information provided by the specialists.

A cooler environment would mean not only saving energy, but also improving comfort. Secondly, a lower temperature within the cities means less smog. Thirdly, the global warming effect would be slowed down.

If in the cold season people in Georgia do not have too many things to worry about considering that winters are rather mild, during the summer the roof cover materials have much to suffer because of the very high temperatures and prolonged exposure to UV rays. Summer maintenance is therefore essential to prevent deterioration at functional and aesthetic levels.

Your roof has to deal with:

  • Sun

Per Lawrenceville roofing company experts, exposure to UV rays is one of the things that cause the most damage to a roof, in the long run. They damage the roof materials by drying them out, causing them to weaken, crack, buckle or split. Sun exposure also has aesthetic consequences, some roof materials becoming bleached if they are not treated and maintained properly.

  • Heat

In Georgia, air temperatures often exceed 95 °F in the summer, which means that temperatures on the surface of roofs can reach very high levels (more than 160 degrees!) This constant exposure to heat cause premature aging of roofing materials, especially if a building is not properly ventilated and heat and moisture build up in the attic.

How to protect your roof from the heat

Roof damage from heat is cumulative, which means that it happens in time. The roof will not collapse if it is exposed to temperatures of 100 degrees for a season. Besides, you can prevent damage by performing regular maintenance, according to the type of roof you have, or by considering a cool roof options; this means either installing a metal roof, or coating your existing roof with a special light-colored membrane that prevents heat absorption.

For well-maintained roofs, chances are you will not need to worry about them at all!