Is Energy Efficiency Really Important?

Fads come and go, from diets to home remodeling, you never know what is coming down the pike next. A big catch phrase over the last decade or so has been energy efficiency. When it comes right down to it, just how important is it to invest time and money into creating an energy efficient home? Is it worth it to call a Knoxville roofing contractor to discuss solar shingles? Would a Nashville windows specialist be able to assist you in lowering your utility bills?
   


Health

Evidence is mounting that shows a more energy efficient home could actually be beneficial to your health. Mold, dust mites, combustion materials and radon are all concerns in a non-energy efficient home. When you have sealed up the cracks and replaced inefficient siding, windows or roofs you limit the entry points in your home for rodents, insects, dust and even pollen. These are all definitely good reasons to consider remodeling or updating your home to a more energy efficient level.

Affordability

When contractors invest time in creating an energy, efficient home, they increase the number of buyers who can afford the property. If you are spending less on heating and cooling it, stands to reason, you can afford a bigger mortgage, which usually translates into a bigger and better home. A well built home equipped with energy efficient appliances will be an attractive option to a larger number of potential buyers. In addition, this can help communities by allowing lower income families the ability to purchase a nice home while still having some disposable income.

Environmental Issues

Did you know the majority of the electricity is created by burning fossil fuels? These are non-renewable resources and while you may not think, one person could change a lot, but as the energy efficiency boon continues to spread, we will see a reduction in the consumption of these precious resources. Currently there is a lot of effort being made to discover and develop renewable sources of energy, but until then every little bit helps.

Conclusion

Is working with a Nashville contractor or other local contractor to create a more energy efficient household really important? When you look at all the evidence, it is clear, that energy efficiency is important for many reasons up to and including health, environment and monetary savings. Whether you are trying to create a greener environment, save money or simply remodel your home so it is attractive to potential buyers, energy efficiency should be at the top of your list.

Getting the Wow Factor in Curb Appeal

If you cross the road and stand on the other side and look back at your home, does it appeal to you? Does it catch your eye and invite you in to see what further lovely surprises perhaps lurk inside? You need to see your home through the eyes of a stranger; no sentiment, just facts. Here are some small ways in which you can go about increasing the curb appeal of your property.

The driveway

Get rid of all the overgrown greens that have been there for years. You keep telling yourself that they will by some miracle of nature transform at some stage into a glorious specimen which will be the envy of your neighbors. It is not going to happen! Take them out and let in the light. If your driveway has a border with no edging, it looks shabby. This is very easily rectified by placing a few bricks on their side. Use a level when laying the bricks as this will ensure the best finish. The best way is to dig a hole of roughly the same depth as your brick, plus at least another 2 inches. Then, using fine white sand to line the hole, place your brick on top. Once all your bricks are in place you can mix some masonry cement and wash this over your bricks to make sure they stay put.

The garden

Placing pretty pots in places where it is difficult for grass or shrubs to grow and filling them with a variety of flowering plants is most effective. Add charm to your garden by placing vegetables and herbs between non-edible plants. This creates a country feel and also provides you with your own vegetables and herbs to enjoy. It also encourages the right kind of insects and butterflies into your garden.

The front entrance

If your front door is looking old and shabby it is perhaps time to seek the services of an efficient and well known Tennessee contractor to assist you in acquiring and fitting a new one. The front door is important as it needs to be a good strong door for security purposes as well as a well sealing door so as not to allow in unwanted drafts. If your door is still fine, then perhaps jazzing it up with a fresh coat of paint and adding a nice brass knocker will all add to the interest of your home.

The windows, the fascia board, the flashing, the roofing

There are many excellent Tennessee roofing contractors available in order to make sure you have the best quality of service. It is important to keep an eye on windows to make sure they are all sealed properly. If they need a varnish or a lick of paint, a good sanding down first is required. Make sure your fascia boards are all looking neat and tidy. Check the roof for loose tiles, loose shingles or loose sheeting.

Summon Your Nashville Contractor For Existing Porch Add-Ons

Building on to your home is a series of ever progressing upgrades that take place over time. As your family grows, so does your home, with new kitchens and bedrooms added on to the original design as they are needed. For millions of families across America, this expansion often includes building a porch or a deck on to the exterior of the home. A wonderful place where the family can relax and enjoy the outdoors, these structures usually begin life as a simple platform, exposed to the elements.


At some point, the family gets the idea to build a cover onto the already existing porch structure. Whether you want to cover the entire deck, or just arrange for a roofed over portion to use in rainy weather, it is a wise idea to summon your Nashville contractor when making such an alteration to an already existing porch or deck.


The reason for this is simple: As your Knoxville roofing experts can tell you, roof structures tend to hold up far more securely when they are braced with a single supporting unit from the floor all the way to the ceiling. Simply nailing a couple of two by fours onto the outside of the deck railing isn't going to cut it when it comes to extending beams for roof support. Your existing deck is going to require major modifications and safety installations if it is going to hold up the finished roofing for any amount of time.

If you attempt to make such modifications without professional assistance, you run the risk of having your entire deck roofing collapse around you from lack of proper support. Your Knoxville roofing experts will be more than happy to help you install the roofing over your existing deck, while implementing all of the appropriate safety measures that your situation calls for.


If you bring your Nashville contractor from from the very beginning, you may be able to build a roof onto your existing porch without requiring any major modifications or rebuilding efforts. However, if you start making modifications without having an expert's assistance, you may very well muck things up to the point where your entire deck needs to come down.


Calling in the professionals to help with this add-on construction is the safest way to go about covering your deck or porch with a roof. To make sure that all of the necessary precautions are in place, and all of the bracing and extensions are done correctly, have your professionals help you from the very concept of the idea. They can help you learn what supports and braces you need in order to do the job yourself if you insist, or your Knoxville roofing expert can do the entire job for you, including matching your home's existing shingles. For the best results and the best safety possible, relying on expert opinions and assistance for your extension needs.

Tips From Your Knoxville Contractor On How To Spot Gutter Trouble

If you're like most Americans, you don't fancy the idea of dangling off a ladder two stories in the air unless you really have to. The reason why the average homeowner doesn't realize that their gutters are in trouble until they're falling off the house is because they don't understand the classic warning signs that a gutter system needs maintenance. Here is a brief guide from your Knoxville contractor to help you know when you need to clean out your gutters.


Visiting Wildlife


When you look up at your gutters and notice that you have animal visitors hanging around, don't think of it as a cute situation. As your Chattanooga roofing experts will tell you, animals that have made their homes inside your gutters mean that they have brought their home with them. This means your gutters are full of nests of twigs, piles of seeds and nuts, and possible offspring. Look for birds, squirrels, frogs, lizards, opossums, raccoons, mice, rats, and snakes in your gutter system. Evidence of their presence should be dealt with immediately.


Greenhouse Gardens


There are many places that your home should have plants growing around to share their beauty, but your gutters are not one of these locations. As your Knoxville contractor will tell you, seeing sprouts or seedlings peeking up from within your gutter is an immediate sign of trouble. If those plants are growing, it means that there is enough build-up of dirt and debris for them to take root in. As we all know, roots and homes don't mix well.


Erosion Lines


Around the base of your home, the landscaping should be nice and smooth. If you begin to notice visible erosion lines that mirror the lower-most level of your gutter system, then those gutters aren't hauling the water away like they should. As your Chattanooga roofing team will explain, these erosion lines are coming from where water is routinely escaping your clogged gutters and dripping onto the ground below. If it's been going on long enough to cause noticeable erosion lines on the ground, you have a serious problem in the gutters above.


Waterfall Spectacles


The next time you have a good rainstorm, grab an umbrella (unless it's lightning!) and take a stroll around your home. Look for any waterfalls coming from your gutter system. These occur around seams where different gutters meet, and are a classic sign of trouble, as your Knoxville contractor will tell you. Either there is a crack in the gutter at this location, something is blocking the water flow completely, or the gutter simply isn't up to the task at hand. Note these waterfall spots and have them inspected once the rain ends.

By keeping your eyes open for these four common warning signs, you can know when your home's gutter system is failing. Heed these warnings, and have your gutters cleaned and inspected before the system fails on you completely.

Tips From Your Tennessee Roofing For How To Spot Potential Roof Damage

In order to know when your roof needs to be repaired, you must know how to spot signs of weathering and weather damage on your shingles. Making the occasional visual inspection from the ground will alert you to potential problems on the parts of the roof that you can see, but monitoring those sections of the roof that you can't see from street level can make the job even trickier. Here's how to know when to call your Chattanooga roofing expert in to have a closer look.

Obvious Damage

There are occasionally times when you simply know that damage has occurred on your roof. Your Tennessee roofing professional should be called in for repairs without hesitation in the event that your area experiences extreme weather. When hailstones reach golf ball size, they are causing damage every time they impact your roof. If a large tree branch comes down on a section of your home, or a large chunk of debris blows in and lands on your shingles, you should assume that there has been damage and have it repaired immediately.

Fall Foliage

Those trees that provide shade around your home are beautiful, but the leaves that they drop on your roof are a potential source of damage. Unless you keep these leaves off your roof by removing them forcibly, they will begin to rot where they lay. This will result in sources of rot being introduced to the shingle surface, which can cause breaches in the water proofing that the shingles depend on. If you have leaves that have completely rotted away, and can clearly see the outlines they left behind, then you should summon your Chattanooga roofing expert to have a look.


Visible Mold

Mold is great, when it's on rocks and the sides of trees. When you can see spots of mold on your roof, you need to call in your Tennessee roofing specialist immediately. Where there is mold, there is moisture, and enough of a breach in your roof's defenses for the mold to have taken root to begin with. Although some homeowners consider mold on the roof to add an air of charm, it should be viewed as a dangerous situation and dealt with promptly to prevent further damage.


Interior Leaks

You hope to spot trouble on your roof before it comes to interior leaks, but sometimes the unexpected happens. When you wake to the rhythmic dripping of water on your carpet, grab a bucket and settle in for the long haul. Hope that this rainstorm doesn't last for the next three straight days, and summon your Chattanooga roofing specialist immediately. The problem with a leak is that where the water enters your home may not be anywhere near where the roof is letting the water in. Having the roof searched promptly is the only way to prevent this small leak from becoming a catastrophic roof failure.

Why You Should Allow Your Nashville Contractor To Install A Modern Metal Roof

Home owners who are contemplating the installation of a new roof mistakenly believe that they are required to replace their current roof with one of the same exact material type. This myth causes home owners who believe it to overlook their real options when it comes to choosing a new roofing material. Your Nashville contractor, Weather Tamer, Inc., want you to know that this myth is entirely false. You aren't limited as to what material can be placed on your current roof structure according to what is already in place.

When it comes to Nashville roofing, we know that your roof will take a beating in the wild weather of this area. Spring can be notorious for sudden storms, with the threat lingering right through into the early fall. This is then replaced with the threat of ice and snow in the winter. We know how wild the weather can be because we experience it right along with you in our Tennessee based company, and we know how tough your roofing material needs to be in order to make it through in one piece.

Hiring your Nashville contractor to replace your roof, or to repair missing shingles after a storm, can become expensive if done repeatedly. You need to know that the material you're wanting to replace your roof with can be installed easily and at as little cost as is possible to you. This is where the modern metal roof comes in to play.

The modern metal roof is a lightweight design that is every bit as strong as modern shingles are. You can have your metal roof installed by your Nashville roofing expert on the same structure that supports your existing roof. That's right, there's no need to concern yourself over having the entire structure of your roof re-done. Our licensed and certified Nashville contractor team can pull up your shingles and start laying your metal roof down without needing to make any costly adjustments in-between.

The metal roof is a modern classic that can look as metal or as traditional in nature as you choose. These roofs come in many different metal varieties, from simple tin and copper to options as hard as stainless steel and titanium. You'll be able to find exactly what you are looking for in strength and durability with these metal choices. The modern metal roof even comes in shingle options, with possibilities that look like traditional wooden shingles or even stone.

The way that your new roof will look is entirely up to you. When you figure out how you want to combine all of the possibilities, and then include the different colors that are formed directly as part of the metal to prevent fading over the years, you will realize that the modern metal roof is a wise choice for your home. Resist the Tennessee weather by letting your Nashville roofing expert get started on your new roof covering today.

5 Reasons To Let Knoxville Roofers Protect Your Gutters

While your current gutter system is designed to protect your home from being exposed to rain water and snow melt, you have to ask yourself if you're happy with the way the entire system works. Not just how the water is captured, or how the system looks in relation to your entire house, but the entire package.

Here are 5 reasons why you should consider having your gutter system improved by your Knoxville roofing specialists.

Gutter Overflow - Having your gutters overflow can be more than just an annoyance. Any point where your gutter overflows is a location where all of that concentrated runoff is splashing down around your home. This escaped storm water pools along the perimeter of your home, and can lead to flooding, leaks, and rot taking up residence within your home. Protected gutters change the angle that the water enters your gutter system at, reducing overflow risk and fixing those stubborn corner spots that overflow in every storm.

Ice Dams - Here at Weather Tamer, Your Chattanooga roofing specialists will be the first to tell you how much damage a frozen dam of ice can cause to your entire gutter system. Instead of the melt water draining away like it is supposed to, that solid block of ice will cause this water to pool in your gutters and along your roof. Before you know it, you'll end up with damage to your roof and leaks inside your home. Our gutter systems keep your drains clear, preventing these ice dams from forming.

 

Debris Clogs - An unprotected gutter system will collect the debris that washes off of your roof. After a hard storm and frequently during the fall season, your gutters will be overrun with leaves and twigs. Your unprotected system will form hazardous clogs that will back water up, and introduce rot and mold in close proximity to your home. As your Knoxville roofing specialist will tell you, the gutter protection system creates such a small gap along your gutters that water may enter, but this and other types of debris will not. Debris washes straight off the roof, leaving your gutters clear.
 

Peace Of Mind - What better way is there to know that your gutter system can handle the spring storms than with gutter protection? Our Chattanooga roofing specialists will be able to install these systems in only a couple of days along your gutters. Since we only employ licensed and certified technicians, never sub-contractors, you know that your installation will be completed on time and finished correctly.

Weather Resistant - You don't need to worry about our gutter protection system blowing off in a bad storm. Our Chattanooga and Knoxville roofers install this system at a low angle that prevents the wind from getting under it and ripping it off your roof. Whatever spring can throw at you, our gutter protection system will keep your home same and looking good.

Guide to Hiring a Tennessee Roofing Contractor

The average life of your roof, unless it's a very specialty material, is going to be about fifteen years. If you're approaching the age of fifteen for your roofing, it may be time to start considering a new roof and to begin looking for a Chattanooga roofing contractor to install it for you. It isn't likely that you're going to get much more than twenty years from your plain asphalt roofing no matter where you live. If your roofing is older than this, chances are good that you should simply plan to replace the roofing this year.

A Chattanooga roofing company will be best equipped to install your new roof and to make sure that you get a quality material and installation. Befor your select your roofing company, it's always best to check them out thoroughly. The first step will be to get recommendations on roofers from your family and friends. Getting a few ideas from them will save you time on the beginning portion of the search for a new roofing contractor. Most of your friends and family have had to replace a roof at one time or another. Find out who they used, how happy they were and if the price was reasonable. Even if you don't have a lot of friends who have used a given roofing company, get a quote from several. The quote should be very detailed, telling you precisely what they offer you, the work that will be done, exactly what the cost will be and the precise or at least a close approximation for the time frame. You need to know when the job is going to be completed.

Make sure that all of the job is included in the price that you are quoted. In most cases, roofers will clean up after themselves, but in some cases that won't be included in your pricing. If you don't want to be cleaning up the mess that is left behind by your Tennessee roofing company, check it out and add that to your overall price quote.

Next you need to make sure that you're getting all that you want in the roofing company themselves. The Tennessee roofing company that you hire needs to have a few things going for them before you even consider their services.

Things that you should look for include:

• Longevity in the business. You should be sure that they have a least a few years in the roofing business.

• Check out their license as a contractor. In many areas, you cannot hire a contractor who does not have a local business license. In fact, it's probably better if you don't because chances are good they aren't legal to work in this area.

•  Ask them if they have a physical address. If they don't at least have an office in a local home, they are probably not a company that you want to use because you have no real recourse if they don't do what they say that they will.

• Make sure that they have insurance as a contractor. If they don't, this is not a company that you can afford to use. If something is broken or someone is injured, they aren't going to be able to make that right.

• Check your local building codes to make sure that your company is adhering to all of them. You're liable if they don't.

• Get a permit to do what you want done. You can't always depend on the company to do so; keep track of the permits yourself.

NEVER allow yourself to be rushed into hiring a roofing contractor. Make sure that the local company that you hire is legal, is ethical and is well checked out before they start your roofing job.

Hail Damage and Hail Resistant Roofing in Tennessee

Tennessee is known for the rolling hills, the beautiful skies and the vast array of scenery that ranges from mountain capes to beautiful rivers. It is also known for the hail that falls frequently in the summertime storms. Tennessee gets hail about 5-10 times per year. While not always large or outrageous, it can be heavy enough to do some very real damage to the roofing installed on some of the older homes.

Residents on Nashville, Chattanooga and Knoxville can depend on the fact that they are going to have some sort of property damage each year from the winds or the hail. In 2011 alone the hail damage in one county in Tennessee topped the million dollar mark. The effect of hail on Tennessee roofing can't be understated. In fact hail doesn't just damage roofing alone, it can also do some vast damage to even insulated vinyl siding, causing dents or tears to the siding.

Once a hail storm in Tennessee has passed, it's advisable to contact a Tennessee roofing professional in order to get an inspection of your home. To the naked eye, it's not always easy for a person who isn't a professional to determine if there has been damage and what the extent of the damage may be. Even very small hail can cause damage to your home that you may not easily see. A trained Tennessee contractor can look over every area of your home that may be prone to damage such as the gutters, the siding, the fences, and the roofs and let you know if there is any damage that needs to be repaired.

In many cases, Tennessee roofing professionals will give you a free roofing inspection, telling you the extent of the damage and giving you repair options and ballpark figures on the same day that they visit your home. He or she will tell you if you have sufficient damage to contact your insurance company to arrange for roof repairs.

One thing that many Tennessee homeowners opt in for is hail proof roofing. If you must repair or replace your existing roof, you might want to opt in for hail resistant roofing. No roofing can be completely hail proof, but you can get various ratings to make it more resistant to hail damage. Hail resistant roofing is classified in four different categories, depending on how resilient that it is to hail storms. The shingles have a quality that makes them like rubber so that the hail bounces rather than damaging the roof. If you’re interested in hail resistant roofing, it may be something that you want to discuss with your Tennessee roofing contractor during your home inspection.