In many areas, including Dallas and Fort Worth, the summer sun can get excruciatingly hot. Kicking the air conditioner up a notch or three can cause your energy bill to skyrocket. There must be a better way to keep cool without the higher power bill! There is, and your Dallas and Fort Worth roofers can help!



That's right! You can make your home cooler based on what's going on up on the roof. The first thing you'll need is to make sure everything is sealed and the material is properly installed. Any cracks, tears, or gaps in the roofing can cause the cool air from the air conditioner to seep out, while also letting the hot summer air in. Make sure to call a Dallas roof repair company to fix any problems with your roof. Assuming that everything is installed correctly, there are still several things you can do to your roof to stay nice and cool inside your home without the air conditioner blasting.

The first is to replace the roofing with a more reflective one. Every material available for your roof has reflective properties, some more than others. The more reflective the material on your roof is the better. If the sunlight is being bounced away from the home, it can't heat the house up! The best material for reflectivity is metal. Whether it be tin, lead, or some other form of sheet metal, it'll be your best bet as it has a nearly 70% reflective property. Some not so great material for reflecting sunlight would be build-up roofing or tar. Their reflectivity is only about 5%. That's a lot of sunlight being absorbed and heating your home!

You can increase the reflectivity of your roof by having it be a light color such as white. 6th grade science tells us that dark colors absorb light and heat, where as light colors like white reflect it. Even ancient Mediterranean knew this, which is why their ancient buildings were all white. Most roofing materials come in white or some other light color for an extra price. In many cases, this is well worth the extra cost. Using the white colored versions of roofing material can increase its reflective properties between 10% and 70% more than it previously was. Make sure when you talk to Dallas or Fort Worth roofers that you discuss the availability of white for each material.

Radiant barriers are another thing you can add to make your home cooler and more cost effective. A radiant barrier is a material that is reflective on one side, and has a heat absorber on the other. Generally you'll place these where the attic meets the roofing. The reflective side aids in reflecting the light and keeping the heat from getting inside.

Ventilation in your attic is another thing to consider installing. You can pump the warm air out of the attic so it can't spread through the rest of the house.

Ask your roofer about coatings as well. There are many types of coatings that you can add to many roofing materials to make them water resistant, fire proof, and even more reflective!