Energy costs represent around half of regular building-related expenses, this is why most residents and owners are looking for ways to reduce these expenses. While installing properly sealing doors and windows, insulating the walls and the attic are great, efficient ways to decrease your building’s energy needs, door and window replacement as well as insulation are often dismissed as solutions require an investment way too high. Fortunately, property owners have one more, very efficient and affordable way to reduce the amount of energy that escapes the building and that is roof coating. Here is how a properly chosen and applied roof coating product can help you reduce energy costs.
What Roof Coatings Have to Offer
Roof coating products come in liquid form or in foam consistency and they are applied on top of existent roofing, most often on metal roofs, to enhance the performance of the roof. The range of the available coating products is quite extensive, even for metal roofing San Antonio has, the most common types being silicone, acrylic, polyurethane, bitumen-based and asphalt coating products. Each of the materials has weathering properties, they all increase the durability of the existing roofing and they all enhance the roof’s thermal performance, but not all of them offer all these benefits at the same level, some are more suitable for weatherproofing and leak prevention, while others are more suitable for energy-efficiency purposes and have better reflective qualities.
All roof coating products offer a certain level of thermal protection, helping with maintaining the energy balance inside the building, but if the roof is on a building located in a very hot area, the color of the coating can matter a lot. While dark colors tend to absorb the heat they come into contact with, light colors, especially white, reflect the heat. This also means that the lighter the color of your roof, the less heat the roof will absorb, therefore the easier and cheaper it will be for your cooling system to maintain the temperature inside the building comfortably cool.
How Much Energy Can You Save with Roof Coatings?
The savings that can be achieved with the right coating are quite significant, actually it can be anywhere between 20-60%, but calculating the exact amount is not easy. The efficiency of the roof coating is largely determined by the type of product that you choose, but the overall energy-efficiency performance of your building envelope is also determined by how efficient it already is. The size of the roof is also an important factor – the larger the surface that you coat with reflective product, the more efficient your building’s energy usage will become.
How to Coat the Roof
Roof coating must be always applied on a dry and intact roof. Before you actually apply the coating, the roof needs to be cleaned thoroughly, it must be inspected for damage and the problems detected during the inspection, such as any leaks, cracks, dents, signs of rust, corrosion or other damage need to be eliminated. The coating product is applied on the cleaned and restored roof either from spray cans or with rollers, as indicated in the product instructions. To maintain the efficiency of the coating, the material needs to be reapplied every couple of years, as specified in the product’s manual.