With summer comes the memories of childhood. Remember the heat from a boiling asphalt driveway? With bare feet, even here in Wisconsin, we quickly learned that you wouldn’t scorch your feet if you ran fast enough.
Asphalt can’t change its nature when it comes to heat.
Asphalt gets hot, and although the asphalt on that driveway isn’t the same as the kind in your shingles, they both absorb and transfer heat, unfortunately efficiently. The sun is unkind to asphalt shingles, wearing them down, bleaching them out, and sometimes causing them to split and crack.
With temperatures on the rise this year, asphalt shingles bake, releasing their heat into your attic and then through the rest of your home. As a result, you must run the air conditioning more often to contest the heat coming from up top. Unfortunately, even with adequate attic ventilation, asphalt can’t change its nature when it comes to heat.
What difference does a metal roof make?
Now, let’s compare a metal roof’s summer performance to what we’ve seen so far from asphalt. At first, you might think metal gets hot, and it does. Just like that awful metal slide on the playground that would sear your backside as you flew down it, metal does absorb heat too.
The difference is the finish—the specialized coatings of our metal roofing products aid in reflecting heat instead of absorbing it. The coatings are formed on the metal with layers of primer and paint over the metal’s substrate.
Special coatings like these last for upwards of 50 years, and some with extra layers last even longer. Different coatings affect reflectivity differently, with lighter colors more efficient than darker ones. By reflecting heat, metal roofs reduce the effect of radiant heat from the sun.
Asphalt doesn’t have this kind of protection and will start to wear down and lose color from prolonged exposure to the sun, not something you want from your roofing material.
Additional Heat Reduction, Winter Protection, and Energy Savings
Our metal roofing solutions use integral airspace to limit conductive heat and proper attic ventilation to combat convective heat. This solution can drastically affect the heat of your home. This combination helps keep your northern Wisconsin roof free of snow and ice dam build-ups in the long months of winter.
In addition to protecting your home and maintaining comfort year-round, your maintenance and energy savings can be hundreds of dollars a year, all from choosing the right roof.
Are you ready for a metal roof?
Don’t get caught trying to beat the heat with asphalt. Instead, switch to a metal roof and cool down your home, all while preparing for winter and saving money. We’re here to help.