Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About a Roof

All About Attic Ventilation Systems

Why Ventilate Your Attic?

• During the WINTER, the day to day routine of cooking, bathing and other activities creates moisture. The warm (moisture laden) air rises into the attic and when it hits the cold winter air it reaches a dew point.
  
  If this moisture is allowed to remain trapped in the attic it can do great damage to the insulation and gradually force its way back into the living area causing ceiling spots and peeling paint.
  
  
• During the SUMMER, temperatures in your attic can reach over 150⁰F and penetrate down into the living areas below.
  
  Even at night the attic temperature may not reduce significantly without proper ventilation.

Figure 1 - Attic Ventilation Systems

Figure 2 - Attic Airflow

Problems caused by heat and moisture. . .

• Shingles
  Improper attic ventilation will void shingle manufactures' warranties. Heat trapped in the attic can bake your shingles causing them to buckle or crack.

• Insulation
  Damp insulation doesn't hold heat very well. When your insulation is wet, the "R" factor drops dramatically.

• Paint
  Moisture can become trapped beneath the surface of the wood. When not vented properly, moisture can lead to rotting of the wood which attracts termites and peeling, cracking and blistering of the paint.

• Structure
  Heat and moisture can cause significant damage to rafters and other structural features in the attic of your home.

• Energy
  Heat in the attic can penetrate into your living area. This results in needless and exceptionally high heating and cooling costs.

• Ice Dams
  Ice Dams are formed by the melting and refreezing snow or ice on your roof. This can lead to leaks and decay of roof decking which ultimately will cause interior damage as well.

Types of Attic Ventilation Products

Gable Vents

Gable vents are constructed at the ends of the roof and work in conjunction with soffit vents. Cooler ambient air is drawn up through the soffit vents as the hot attic air escapes the gable vents.

Soffit Vents

Soffit vents draw cooler ambient air in to the attic to replace the hot attic air that escapes through the gable vents, ridge vents, or roof vents. It may be necessary when installing a ridge vent system to increase the number of soffit vents to your home to maximize air flow through the attic. This is a very low cost operation.

Ridge Vents

Ridge vents provide the optimum roof ventilation system if used with a sufficient number of soffit vents.

Roof Vents

	Roof vents are similar to ridge vents insofar as they allow hot attic air to escape. To be effective you must use several strategically located on the roof and need soffit vents to provide maximum ventilation.
	Power Roof vents differ from typical roof vents insofar as they have a thermostatically controlled motor and fan to force hot air out of the attic. The downside to this type of vent is that it takes electricity to operate the fan.

Attic Fans

Attic fans are available in two basic configurations: Gable end power fans and whole house fans. These operate with a thermostatically controlled fan motor. The downside is that they use electricity to operate. It is also possible to over-ventilate an attic. This is where attic fans are used in conjunction with soffit vents and ridge vents.

Resources

For more detailed information on attic ventilation systems, visit the links below:

http://www.airvent.com
http://www.triangle-lumber.com/news/tips/atticvent/01.shtml

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About a Roof.

Solar Reflectance and Insulation

The Cool Home

Recently, more attention is being focused on the effects of urban 'Heat islands" and its affect on the environment and economic impact.

Studies have shown that temperatures in major metropolitan areas are an average of 6 to 8 degrees hotter than in their surrounding nearby rural areas.

During the past several decades, dark colored buildings, glass covered high rises and roadways have replaced trees and shrubs in cities thus absorbing more of the suns heat.

This has created urban heat islands and has resulted in increased air-conditioning costs, energy use and air pollution.

Using light colored roof systems to keep buildings cool is not a new idea. Throughout the 1960's, homes built in the southern US were often constructed using white roofing shingles. As air conditioning came into widespread use priorities shifted because it became more popular to use darker colored shingles to conceal dirt and fungus including the perception that home had a better appearance with colored shingles.

Heat absorbed by dark roofing systems enters the attic and then is transfer to the interior of the house. Attic insulation will slow this down somewhat.

A cool roofing system is one that reflects solar radiation and emits thermal radiation as well thus keeping a building cooler and reduces air conditioning costs.

Homes with the highest energy savings (up to 60%) are those that have cooling ducts running through the attic with little or no attic insulation. Homes like these receive the worse effects from hot attics.

For example: air conditioning supply ducts pick up heat from an attic and distribute warmer air throughout the house. If the return ducts located in the attic are not properly sealed they will suck in hot attic air and bring it back to the air conditioner to be cooled. This makes the air conditioner work harder than it should.

It is interesting to note, that a small amount of attic insulation with an R value of R-5 still allows attic heat to transfer directly to the house below. On the other hand, roof color will not make a huge difference in energy savings with a moderately insulated attic.

Therefore, it makes good sense to have at least R-12 insulation between the ceiling joists and between the roof rafters underneath the roof decking.

Public Awareness

With record heat combined with Houston's dubious distinction of being the most air polluted city in the nation, city officials are beginning to take a serious look at the issues of energy costs and reducing air pollution.

However, unless the citizens start taking a leadership position and and forcing some initiatives change is unlikely to occur within a reasonable time frame.

One of the problems will be getting residential developers to change their attitudes about roofing systems and the other will be getting existing home owners associations to change their attitudes and deed restrictions.

Until this happens, we shall all be forced to pay high energy bills and contribute to increased air pollution. 

For more detailed information on this subject, please visit the links below.

Resources:

http://eetd.lbl.gov/coolroof/http://professionalroofing.net/past/oct98/feature.asp

Determine the Condition of Your Roof

There are a number of warning signs to let you know if your roof is damaged or if it needs replacement. Following are some of the more common and readily visible indications.

• Loose granules that look like sand in the rain gutters or on the sidewalk, porch or driveway. These will be right under the end of the roof slope.
  
• When the sun is shining at the right angle you may notice that your roof is sparkling. This is usually a sign that most of the granules on the shingle are gone.
  
• Edges of your roof are cracked, chipped or missing shingles. This is a clear sign that your roof has deteriorated and is at the end of its life span.
  
• Lift a shingle and try to bend it slightly. If it is real brittle the roof is showing advanced age and is probably due for replacement. Flexibility means it still has some life left in it.
  
• In Texas heat, you will notice shingles that will crimp or feather. This feathering effect usually occurs when the roof is totally deteriorated. 
  
  NOTE: Insurance companies are not required to replace a roof that has exceeded its life span regardless of subsequent damage from weather or other conditions.
  
  
• When you lift a shingle apart from each other this means it has lost its seal.

Characteristics of a good roof are:

• Shingle is flexible.
  
• Granules are still bound tightly to shingle.
  
• Seal is still tight to shingle below it or above it and water resistant.
  
• Decking is solid and not spongy.
  
• Fungus does not hurt the life of a shingle only the appearance.

If you have any doubt about the condition of your roof give ROOF ROOF a call. We provide fast, friendly, No Obligation, Free Estimates.

How Insurance Claims Work

There are a number of insurance companies in the United States that provide homeowners insurance policies to cover damage from a variety of sources. This article doesn't attempt to discuss the merits of any specific insurance company nor do we provide any legal advice. Instead, we shall discuss the most common aspects of what happens when you file an insurance claim for damages to a roof.

The Basics

• Nearly all homeowners policies have a deductible clause. This essentially states that for any given financial loss the first appreciable payments must come out of your pocket.
  
  For instance: Let's say that your house is insured for $100,000 and your policy calls for a 1% deductible. That's $1,000. Then, for the sake of example, you occur damage to your home that will cost $750. Since the policy has a $1,000 deductible your policy will not cover the damage. Therefore, you must pay it out of your pocket.
  
  On the other hand, let's say the damage is $2,000. In this case the insurance company will pay $1,000 and you will have to make up the difference of $1,000 out of your pocket.
  
  
• For the most part, all insurance companies have a breakpoint minus the deductible, as to how and when they will release funds for the recovery and repair of damages to your home.
  
  Typically, this breakpoint is around $1,500.
  
  
• For example, let's assume that you have damage to your home that has been estimated to be $3,000.
  
  
• The insurance company will generally offer three (3) ways to pay the claim:

1. Cut a check payable to you and the general contractor. (Co-endorser)
   
2. Cut a check payable to you and your mortgage holder. (Co-endorser)
   
3. Cut a partial check called a "depreciation allowance" to you with the final check cut after you have sent in a copy of the initial paid invoice from the general contractor.

The reason insurance companies pay claims that exceed certain pre-determined limits, is to make certain that you do the repairs and not simply pocket the money. This also helps them to reduce the risk of the same type of claim re-occurring again.

From our example above: Let's say you had roof damage from a severe thunderstorm that also caused the roof to leak and you have water stains on the ceiling in your home as a result.

• Your insurance company claims adjuster examines your house and provides you with a detailed list of what is covered and how much they will pay for the roof and the interior damage. The adjuster determines there is $2,000 damage to the roof and $1,000 damage to the interior of the home. 
  
  At this point there are three possible scenarios:

Scenario 1: You then solicit bids from several contractors to do the repairs or replacements. As it turns out, the roofing contractors you get bids from do not do interior remodeling or repairs and, likewise, the interior contractors do not do roofing work.

Your best option in this scenario would be to have your insurance company pay you using the depreciation allowance. 

In this scenario, you would have the roofing contractor do the job. You then submit the paid invoice to your insurance company in order to receive the balance of the depreciation allowance. Once you receive the final check from the insurance company, you then pay the second contractor for the interior repairs.

Scenario 2: You solicit bids from several contractors who can do both the roof and interior repairs or replacements.

In this scenario, we assume that you will not be doing any of the repairs yourself and that a single contractor will handle the job of both the roof and interior repairs.

Your best option in this scenario is to have your insurance company issue a co-payment or endorsement with your name and the name of the contractor. 

This protects all parties concerned. 

It prevents the fly-by-night type contractor because he doesn't get paid until the job is done and in order to get his money your signature has to be on the check. It goes without saying, never the sign the check until the work is done.

It protects you by insuring that the work gets done and it protects the insurance company by assuring that the repairs were completed.

Scenario 3: You solicit bids from roofing contractors only and decide to do the interior repairs yourself and pocket the difference from the savings of doing it yourself.

In this scenario, your best option would be to select the depreciation allowance payment since you will have a roofing contractor fixing or replacing your roof and you will be doing the interior repairs. As in scenario 1, you will submit the paid invoice from the roofing contractor and then get paid the balance from your insurer.

• You may have noticed that we omitted selecting your mortgage company as a co-endorser. There are two reasons why you would not consider this option.
  
  1. They may charge you a service fee to process the transaction.
  
  2. If your mortgage company is not local it may take an inordinate amount of time   to receive your funds due to bureaucratic handling.

How a Roof Damage Claim is Determined

• One day you wake up to a severe thunderstorm that is producing high winds, hail and heavy down pours of rain. After the storm passes you walk out in your front yard and see tree limbs and other debris. You look up to your roof and notice big chunks of shingles missing. You walk to your back yard and low and behold, there they are!
  
  
• You call your insurance agent. He or she sets an appointment for a claims adjuster to come to your home. The claims adjuster arrives, pulls out a ladder and climbs on top of your roof. Later, he or she examines the interior of your house.
  
  
• Finally, the claims adjuster will describe what will be covered by your policy and the reasons for it. He or she will say that they will go to the office and prepare a detailed report and send you a copy, either by mail or fax.
  
  NOTE: It is nearly impossible to speculate on roof damage regarding specific cases. We will try to present some of the most common situations that might be factors in a roof damage claim.
  
  Factors that may affect the amount of insurance coverage you'll get for roof damage are:

• The age of the roof.
• The condition of the roof prior to the damage.
• The damage to the interior of the home as a result of the roof damage.

• It is not uncommon for insurance companies to only insure and therefore only pay for replacement of half of a roof. 
  
  Typically, this will be the side that shows the most damage and is usually on the southern side of a house here in the Gulf Coast region during spring and summer, as these are where the offshore breezes are coming from and, from the northern side during the fall and winter, as these are where the cold fronts are coming from.
  
  
• Often times, a claims adjuster will tell you that roof damage is the result of high winds only and that hail itself does not cause roof damage. This, of course, is not true. However, they will try to use this argument to reduce the amount of insurable loss.
  
  The primary guiding factor in determining if your insurance company will replace a roof versus simply repairing a roof, is if there is appreciable interior damage.
  
  This means that there must be a clear indication that the roof is leaking evidenced by water stains on the ceilings of your home.
  
  Unless there was severe, immediate roof damage from the weather event as discussed, it will probably be at least two to four weeks from that specific weather event, providing that subsequent thunderstorms have occurred, to determine if your roof is leaking from the original storm that caused the problem.
  
  
• Your insurance company may also try to base its insurable loss by pro-rating the claim based on the age and condition of your roof. In other words, if you have a roof with 20 year shingles and they are now 16 years old, chances are, your roof is nearing or at the end of its life span. Therefore, they may try to pro-rate this by factoring it in to the claim.
  
  Your only counter argument is that the roof was never leaking prior to the weather event in question.
  
  
• It should be noted, that in order for the insurance company to provide replacement of the whole roof and not just half the roof, there must be signs of water damage to the ceilings under both sides of the roof.
  

A Final Note

It is highly advisable that you read and understand your homeowners insurance policy.

If you feel that you are not being treated fairly by your insurance company you may want to contact the Texas State Board of Insurance. 

The Website Home Page is: 

http://www.tdi.state.tx.us/

The Consumer Complaint website is:

http://www.tdi.state.tx.us/consumer/indexc.html

 

Frequently Asked Questions

Why Do You Hand Nail Shingles?

Because hand nailing is more accurate. Nail guns are certainly quicker and reduce waste to a certain degree and it does reduce labor costs somewhat. However, depending on the application, nail guns can't judge depth of nail penetration such as being too deep or too shallow. Additionally, working too fast with a nail gun will also cause nails to be shot at an angle instead of being seated flat. Hand nailing is superior to nail guns.

Can I install a Ridge Vent on my roof?

Each house is designed differently. Generally speaking, if you have sufficient soffit ventilation under your eaves and a roof pitch of 5/12 or better, ridge vents will help. Remember, most roofs use more than one style or system for attic ventilation. Usually, a combination of systems works best.

Note: Roof Pitch means the amount of rise in inches for every twelve inches of length. So a 5/12 pitch means that the roof rises 5 inches for every 12 inches of length.

What gauge of roofing felt do I use on my roof?

The first rule of thumb is the pitch of the roof. If the roof has a pitch of 7/12 and up, use 30lb. felt. If the roof is 6/12 down to 3/12 use 15 lb. 3/12 to 1/12 use 30lb. If you have any doubts use 30lb.

What type of roof decking is the best for my house?

In our opinion, our first choice is 1/2" O.S.B. plywood with decking separators that help with expansion and contraction of the decking material due to hot and cold climates from seasonal changes.

The reason we prefer this material is because it is more economical, more resistent to moisture, warping and gives a more smooth appearance. O.S.B. will last about 40 to 50 years and will withstand 3 new roof replacements. After the 3rd roof application you should replace the decking.

1/2 inch CDX plywood has a longer life span than O.S.B. plywood meaning re-decking would be needed after the 4th roofing.

No plywood decking is immune to moisture and may bow in the middle or crimp if not properly installed.

Depending on the area you live in and what type of structure you are building, building codes will be a determining factor on your choice of decking. 5/8 inch decking is required around the coastal areas and is also required in some of the new sub-divisions being developed in the Greater Houston area.

Is Cool-Ply worth the difference in price over CDX and O.S.B. plywood?

Yes. Over the years Cool-Ply will normally pay for the difference in price with-in the first two years.

Cool-Ply is highly recommended for new construction and "Strip and Deck" applications replacing 3/8 inch and 1/2 inch plywood decking.

When applying Cool-Ply to wood shingle or shake roofs, some value of the Cool-Ply will be lost because of the 1x4 slats running across your rafters, but over the long run will still save you money.

What is the best product out there?

Every manufacturer claims to be the best. And, quite frankly, some are better than others.

It really depends on what you want as a home owners. Warranty? Looks? Price? Fungus Guard? Longevity?

For more information on the products you have to choose from just click on an icon at the top of this page to visit that manufacturers website for product details.

For pricing and other information, contact us at your earliest convenience.

What is the stain on our roof?

It is a fungus. The humidity, heat, moisture and temperature fluctuations here in the Gulf Coast region from 67º F to 105º F in a single day cause fungus to grow. its not dropped from jet airliners. It's not acid rain.

Zinc helps the fungus from discoloring your roof.

Most Fungus Guards are a form of Zinc additive put into the shingle during the manufacturing process.