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Hello. During the summer our double wide gets pretty warm inside. anyway, i've been messing with the idea of installing a white metal roof (or lite colored) to reflect the hot summer sun. as you probably all know, if you stand on a step stool in your house and reach your hand to the ceiling, it is very warm up there. my thinking is that if you reflect the sun's heat, there shouldn't be as much warmth inside. i've been told by contractors that the white metal roofing is cool to the touch in the summer sun as opposed to the black shingles (hot). does anybody have an opinion on this or any experience with this? thank you!

Scott

Hi & welcome. I used Kool seal on our roof. It DOES make a difference. A tip when it comes to applying any type of roof coating, Dress cool, it gets VERY hot up there. And find the darkest sunglasses you can find, you will not believe how much sun it does reflect!! Greg

Hey Greg, thanks for the answer. we have a shingle roof now. I don't know if it makes a difference, but i have heard it does. If you are talking of putting the Kool seal over the shingles, I've been told you cannot apply it to shingles. I wish you would tell me that you can, but i don't think so. thanks for the response.

Scott

Sorry, Our roof is metal. Perhaps JD may know if anything is possible for a coating. Greg

Hi,

The lighter the color the better for roofs. No coatings for shingles, just lighter color shingles.




Thanks,
Robert

there is some ceramic bead paint that is suposed to work wonders for a roof. They claim something like R30 equivalent from 1 layer of paint.

Hi Scott,

A white metal roof is much more efficient than white shingles. A new metal roof also allows you to add some foam board insulation if you choose.

While there are white coatings for roof shingles, I have found them to cause more problems than they solve. They have a tendency to trap water at the shingle edges. Shingles also absorb and retain heat whereas metal will dissipate heat quicker.

The quality of a metal roof is all in the design of the components and quality of the installation. A good metal roof will outlast the home it is installed on. Lessor metal roofs will need more maintenance and sometimes eventual replacement.

JD

My brother coated his shingle roof and it did build up water on the edges. It caused numerous leaks and eventually he had to replace it (with a metal roof). I would not coat any shingle roof.

We just got done installing a metal roof---very easy and fast---our first time doing a metal roof- we did 2 roofs in less than 4 hours,including trim--in our area metal is going at 2.19 a liner foot---that is 3 ft wide---there are many colors to choose from--we got a tan and light gray--look for the photo album of our progress soon
Melissa in WV

I've done lots of research on shingle roof coatings, and here's the conclusion I've come to...

If you want to achieve the reflective properties of a light roof color without much initial investment, then do a 'light' coat of a mixture of white primer and white exterior paint. The key is to not seal the lower edges of the shingles.

The problem with shingles is that they must breath to allow any moisture that gets underneath them to escape. If you put a coating on that seals the bottom edges, then eventually when (not if) water gets under and runs down the underlayment or sheathing and there's nowhere for it to escape from, it will cause structural issues.

The other thing with white paints and coatings on roofs, is they dirty and become another maintenance item requiring a recoat or cleaning to keep up the performance.

A LIGHT COATING IS KEY!

Just an addendum...

Anyone with VA loan and looking to refi to a lower rate.....

VA has a program that you can add up to $6000 to your loan for energy efficiency upgrades - which does include going to either a light colored metal or shingle roof. The materials have to have a specific Energy Star rating.

One word of advice - if you decide to use the program - don't even let on about it when getting the quotes. I got six quotes. Three I told about the VA program. Three I didn't. The three who knew all came in above $6000. The other three were below.

FWIW - new windows are included in the program.

We just replaced ours with a tan colored metal roof that met the energy efficiency standards to qualify for tax reduction. Interior temp. cooler within 2 days. You need to replace the solid vinyl soffitt with the perforated kind so the system can breathe and work as intended. No regrets here.