Sun Damage, How does it affect a roof
The sun, we can’t live without it, but to your roof, the sun is one of its worst enemies.
The sun’s daily onslaught of UV light and temperature changes puts even the toughest roof to the test. Like other weather, the real power of sunlight on your roof is in its constancy. Sunlight is unrelenting, it literally never stops at least not for long. While some places in the world have much more sunlight than Upstate New York we still get plenty of sun and the key to knowing how to beat it is to understand how it attacks a roofing surface.
- Thermal Shock. What is Thermal Shock? Thermal Shock is the sudden change of temperature in either direction. From hot to cold or from cold to hot the cumulative result is clear. When roofing heats up it expands pushing against anything possible with buckling or rippling a definite possibility. Night and cold weather bring the opposite roofing contracts stretching taut and straining against fasteners. This alternating tension can be enough to loosen fasteners from the roof structure. Upstate New York definitely gets more than its fair share of Thermal Shock.
- UV Damage. UV (Ultra Violet) Light a spectrum of sunlight is well known for breaking down materials such as plastics. In fact, most materials used in roofing are vulnerable to UV damage, Metal Roofing is painted to protect it from water and while metal is immune to UV light the paint it depends on to protect it from moisture can in time be degraded by UV Rays from the Sun. Built-Up and Asphalt and Bitumen roofs can be dried out by the intense heat from direct sunlight causing leak-inducing cracks. Single-ply roofing which is plastic relies on quality manufacturing along with the addition of UV protectants to shield it from damage. Even with these every roof still has a useful lifespan, the better the quality the longer it will last.
- Bleaching. Bleaching is really just another type of UV damage just in a more cosmetic sense. Bleaching is unsightly it can lower the curb appeal of residential properties and makes businesses look unkempt.
This is far from a comprehensive article on Sun damage however we have tried to touch on the basics. The real message of all this is you get what you pay for. Don’t Cheap Out on roofing. A roof has a tough life and UV Damage is only 1 of the many ways your roof can fail.
Preferred Roofing promotes only the best and most UV-resistant roofing systems for commercial and residential.