When selecting sustainable roofing materials for your house or business in Sunrise Manor, it's vital to consider the distinct environmental aspects and climate of the area. The desert heat here is intense, so making every part of the home energy-efficient is crucial. Here, the cool roof really shines (figuratively and literally); designed to reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat than a standard roof, a cool rooftop reduces the energy needed to keep the interior livable. Popular options include reflective metal and coated asphalt shingles. Both are durable and effective, and energy savings have made their solar- and wind-resistant attributes very desirable. Additionally, many sustainable roofing materials are recyclable at the end of their lifespan, keeping your roof in line with overall sustainability goals.
Roofing material longevity and lifecycle—especially in a part of the country where dramatic temperature swings and intense storms make impact-resistant roofing a necessity—are central to the very definition of energy-efficient "green" roofs. Sunrise Manor residents invested in longevity when they chose to replace their roofs. They could have gone with asphalt, but we assured them roofing systems relying on asphalt are not nearly as impact-resistant and energy-efficient as "greener" options, meaning they have far less potential for sustainability. If you want a roof to last 50 years—if you want it installed by a reputable contractor and to fly through all necessary inspections—you're mostly looking at tiles, slates, or something else that resembles them in a serious way. And those choices? They're worthwhile, underlining the importance of thinking long-term about roofing systems.
In addition to all the practical aspects, roofing materials should also have an aesthetic quality—an appeal that some might consider in bad taste but that I hope to argue is quite obviously good taste. After all, the roof is one of the first features to catch the eye of someone approaching a building. Sustainable roofing can be every bit as visually arresting as the traditional, unsustainable alternates, particularly when those alternates are the kind of materials, like slate, that are often used in roofing in southwestern Virginia. But sustainable roofing can also help achieve another kind of appeal that often comes with roofing in southwestern Virginia: longevity and the kind of maintenance-free life that lets one camp out on the front porch, reading Walden, without one's roof being an embarrassing eyesore. Although it is usually hidden from view, the roof is a prominent feature of a home.
