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Helpful tips and advice for home maintenance from your roof to your porch.
What's New? |
Fall is here! The leaves are turning the lovely shades of orange and gold. The Washington, DC streets are littered with fallen leaves. The smell of fall is enough to give everyone a sense of joy for the change of season and all it brings. With those joyous feelings and the crunch of leaves under your feet, there is also the reality of what the change of season means for your roof, and even more particular, your gutters. All those colorful leaves gather in your gutter and can cause some serious and costly damage. Boyd Construction Co Inc, the flat roof specialist of Washington, DC, explain the importance of keeping your gutters clean. Roof DamageWhen leaves and other debris clog up your gutters to the point that water is flooding over, you can end up having issues with rot on your roofing. This is one of the main reasons that it's important to keep your gutters clean. Keep Out PestsClogged up gutters can be appealing to a number of critters as a nesting site. From birds to mosquitoes, a bed of damp leaves can be alluring. Damage to FasciaThe fascia is that board that runs right behind your gutter. Overflowing water can damage this important component of your gutter system. Over Watering Garden BedsIf your gutters become clogged to the point that water is spilling over the side and into your garden beds, you can damage your plants' health by essentially drowning them. Over watering can be as harmful as not watering enough. Cracks in FoundationIf water overflows and pools along your home's foundation, it can end up freezing, which can cause it to expand and generate cracks in your foundation. Damage to BracketsClogged gutters are holding too much weight, which can result in damage to the brackets. If you're in need of gutter services, be sure to get in touch with a reputable professional. For gutter services in the Washington DC area, the experts to contact are at Boyd Construction Co Inc at 202-223-ROOF. Go ahead and give a call today!
Aluminum Roof Coating Reflects Heat From Your HomeA reflective roof coating is applied to roofs to help reflect more sunlight from the surface, thus reducing the amount of heat absorbed by the structure. Also known as cool roofing, these roof coatings are available in a number of colors, surfaces, and thicknesses and can make a huge difference when it comes to saving money on energy costs and usage. On top of that, they also aid in creating more comfortable indoor environments, and play a role in prolonging the life of roofs and roofing materials.
Reflective Roof Coating 101: How a Reflective Roof Coating Works Cool roof coatings work to keep your home cool in two distinct ways. The first is by solar reflectance, or the coating’s ability to reflect sunlight away as soon as it hits your structure. Instead of absorbing the sunlight and heat like a traditional roof, a cool roof reflects the light and heat away from your home, keeping your home cooler in the process. The other way that cool roofing helps to keep your home cooler is through thermal emittance. These roof coatings are now made with special materials that increase your roof’s thermal emittance level, or your roof’s ability to radiate absorbed heat back into the atmosphere instead of down into your home. It’s this potent combination of high solar reflectance and thermal emittance that make these roof coatings so effective at keeping your home cool and your energy costs and usage down. Reflective Roof Coating and Energy Savings What kind of energy costs and usage savings are we talking about here? Significant ones. It’s important to realize that the amount of benefits you get from your reflective coating will vary depending on the shape of your home, the coating you choose, how energy efficient your home already is, your local climate, and whether you use air conditioning or not. However, if you live in a hot climate that experiences warm temperatures and sunny days for a substantial portion of the year, you can expect energy savings of up to 70%. If not, your energy savings from applying a reflective roof coating could range anywhere from 20% to 70% when it?s all said and done. Shopping for a Reflective Roof Coating The most important decision you’re going to make when shopping for cool roof coatings is the color. Reflective coatings come in white, a variety of darker colors, and in high reflection coatings. What you decide on here can make a huge difference. White coatings are by far the most effective, and reflect anywhere from 50% to 90% of the sunlight and heat that hit your roof. Highly reflective coatings, which most often resemble a paintable aluminum coating, come in second with reflectance levels in the 60% to 70% range. And if you decide to choose looks over performance, colored coatings significantly reduce the reflectivity ratings to 15% to 35% (which is still better than no coating at all). When you make your decision, keep in mind also that if your new roof coating reflects enough light and heat (65% for flat roofs and 25% for sloped roofs), it will also qualify as an Energy Star rated roof and will earn you tax breaks on top of the high energy savings. Application and Other Improvements These coatings can be applied on your own, you can hire a professional to do the job for you, or you can look for roofing materials that have reflective coatings already baked onto the surface. And if you’re serious about improving the energy efficiency of your home, talk to an energy auditor or general contractor about other modifications you can make to improve your efficiency ratings. Improving traditional insulation in your attic, installing reflective attic insulation, and improving attic ventilation are all smart steps to take, along with applying reflective coatings, in order to get maximum energy efficiency out of your home. Originial Article *https://www.homeadvisor.com/r/reflective-roof-coatings/* You know it’s time to replace your car when it keeps breaking down. You know it’s time to replace your carpet if it’s frayed or stained. You know it’s time to replace your clothes if they don’t fit or go out of style. And you know it’s time to replace your cell phone when… well, when the new cool phone comes out. But what about your home’s roof? The point at which you need a roof replacement is not always readily apparent (unless it collapses, catches fire, or gets crushed by a tree). And changing out a few shingles will only solve the problems for so long. So here are eight signs that indicate that it may be time to replace your roof.
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Boyd Construction CoFamily owned and operated in the greater Washington DC area since 1932. Archives
September 2019
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