Painting Roofs White

IN 2009 I wrote about the value of painting roofs *white*, which would cool the interior of the house, by reflecting light and not absorbing the light as thermal energy (heat). I also mentioned that the colour didn’t have to be white, as long as a heat reflective coating was used.

Well, it has been two years, and we finally found a client who wanted their roof painted in a heat reflective roof paint. We choose to go with the Dulux Infracool Roof Paint, and the colour chosen by the client is Colourbond Monument (a dark colour). It will be a real test to see how effective the Infracool Paint is… The client told us that the attic was not habitable in summer because the space got so hot. We are confident that with the cool roof paint, the attic will be up to five degrees cooler.

The picture at left shows the cleaning process in December 2011: the cement render tiles were cleaned with a high pressure wash, and mould was treated with bleach.

December turned out to be the wettest and coldest “december” since 1060, so we haven’t had a chance to apply the new Infracool. We plan to do this in January 2012, when we resume after the Christmas break. This is a work in progress…