We have a clear fiberglass roof on our enclosed porch. We just recently put it in. Sun pounds in and by afternoon in the summer, it is SO hot in there. We used to just open the windows and it would cool the house. The old roof was tinted green and we never had this problem before. What can we put on the new roof to cool off our home?
How do we keep a porch with a fiberglass roof cool
roof
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I think an attic ventilation system will definitely help with your problems. Fortunately, you can also sort of step up with ventilation as you go, adding powered fans if the vents you put in at first dont work as well as you'd expect.
In the winter, having a properly vented attic will help prevent ice dams in gutters, and can help with heat problems in the summer too. In your attic (above the insulation) should ideally be close to the same temperature as the outside. It should be cold in the winter, and hot in the summer.
For the ventilation, you should have some soffit vents on the bottom and a vent on the side (near the top) or on the top (like a ridge-line vent). That will allow the air to move freely.
If the air doesn't move as well as you'd like, you can wire in an attic fan to help push the air along.
Leaving the lag bolts in is fine, but the bolts are likely made out of galvanized steel, meaning they will rust and corrode eventually when exposed to constant rain and water. It is best to liberally apply roof cement patch to the lag bolts to ensure that no water will corrode or leak through where the bolts are.
You can get roof cement patch in a tube form like so that easily fits into a standard caulking gun.
It will eventually wear away so I would check on the patches every 3 or 4 years to make sure they are still there.
Best Answer
Replace the new roof. Clearly you chose wrong in a transparent untinted roof. It is possible that a stain/dye of some sort (applied to the underside of the roof) might be able to block some sunlight, but I expect that it will bleach out far too quickly from that sunlight.
If replacing the roof is not acceptable, then you might need to add vents to encourage more circulation.