On May 10th, hail pummeled parts of Minneapolis, as you can see in this short video. It was very loud, and I knew it could dent our aluminum flashing around the edges of the roof as well as around our windows. If you look closely in the picture of the green roof, you can indeed see little dents on the black part. Most of the dents are cosmetic (but hey, homes ARE cosmetic), but some are potential structural issues. So, I figured those might need fixing or replacing.
What I hadn’t anticipated is the recommendation by our roofer, with the full support of insurance company, that we replace our entire rubber membrane roof (EPDM). To my eye, I see no issue. Aren’t rubber membrane roofs designed to resist hail damage, because the hail just bounces off them? It seems like a serious waste of materials to have to pull the entire roof off and replace it, when it was new just 2 1/2 years ago.
On top of that, we’ll have to have the solar panels uninstalled temporarily while they replace that roof, and then reinstalled. Anyone who has read my Solar Saga article knows how happy I am about that.
But to look at things more optimistically (my dad says to look at it as an economic stimulus program), I think: now is the opportunity to get a better roof, so this won’t happen again. Alas, the insurance company will only pay for the same product, but I am still exploring other options.
Example #1: What about a white roof? Due to a horrible heat wave in Chicago several years ago, where many people died, all new roofs in Chicago must either be green (meaning planted) or white (in color). It seems to me that a white roof, with its reflective properties, would dramatically reduce the cooling costs of a building and might possibly make the roof last longer because it wouldn’t get close to melting point (like our roof must be doing today, with a heat index of 115)! Our roofer said the cost would be the same, so it’s definitely a consideration.
Example #2: What about a thinner membrane roof (less expensive), but put rocks on top of it, to prevent future hail damage? The rocks might clog the gutter, which would be a problem, but they could put stoppers in to prevent that. This is also under consideration.
Example #3: What about putting a green roof everywhere? Not only would this be prohibitively expensive, but since our home was built on pilings, it structurally would not support the weight. We also can’t see the rest of the roof, so we don’t get that benefit.
In any case, this is a huge, unexpected project that is requiring me to learn more about roofing — something I did not pay much attention to (like the driveway) when we were building our home. Now’s my chance to figure it out. Any suggestions?