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A lot of planning goes into ensuring that your metal roof installation goes off without a hitch. It’s not an overnight process – your roof installer needs to look at a whole range of factors.
One of the most important is roof sarking.
Yet despite its importance to your roof, very few people seem to understand what roof sarking is and its purpose.
Today, the experts at Watermaster Roofing will be shining a spotlight onto this cryptic part of the roofing process. We’ll be explaining why it’s important as well as our advice for getting the best value out of your roof sarking.
Sarking is a vital part of your home’s insulation system. It’s the layer that sits between your roof itself and the ceiling. It is usually installed directly underneath your roof and acts as an additional barrier for heat and moisture.
Sarking is an essential part of your home’s insulation system, acting as a radiant barrier in your roof. If you want to stay cool in summer and warm in winter, effective sarking is a must-have.
Choosing the right sarking layer can make your home significantly more thermal-efficient, reflecting heat and maintaining your home’s temperature. Needless to say, effective sarking can save you on air conditioning and heating!
In addition, sarking also reduces the amount of noise that comes from your metal roof.
We’ve blogged before about the most common metal roofing myths – one of the most common being that they’re nosy. The reason it’s a myth is because of advances in sarking materials!
Sarking can also act as a vapour barrier – in addition to protecting your house from the sun, it also keeps your ceilings safe from moisture.
Moisture can seep through permeable materials. In a poorly constructed roof, water vapour can sneak in through gaps between sheeting. In particularly humid areas, is this moisture can build up in the space between your roof and ceiling over time.
The result? Water damage and mould growth.
The key is choosing the right type of roof sarking. Where do you begin?
The only opportunity you’ll have to get sarking installed in your home is when your roof is installed for the first time.
Since sarking sits directly underneath your roof, it’s impossible to retrofit sarking without tearing off your current roof!
Here are just some of the considerations your roofers make when it comes to getting the best and most effective result from roof sarking.
In the old days, most homes would be built with wooden sarking underneath their roofs.
Nowadays however, the vast majority of Australian homes are built with much more effective reflective foils.
However, not all foils are made equal. Different brands and lines of sarking foil have different properties, while some cheaper foils might not be as effective at keeping moisture out your home.
If you live in a humid area, are fond of hot showers (guilty!) or are an avid cook, you may have a lot less leeway with the type of sarking material you can choose.
Another consideration is the type of roof you’re getting! Different roofing materials have different qualities – metal is more thermally efficient than tiles, for instance. And in our experience, your roof material has a direct influence on the type of sarking material that is most suited to your home.
If you need help deciding what sarking material is most effective for your roof, talk to your local roofer for advice.
We briefly mentioned before how sarking is an effective tool for preventing water damage and condensation.
However, protecting yourself from moisture is slightly more complicated than that. Sarking’s role is not solely to keep moisture out – it’s to get moisture to leave, too.
Yes, you heard that right!
The reason is that moisture and humidity don’t just come from the outside… they also come from within! Sarking needs to let moisture and humidity from inside escape. Otherwise, you might find humidity from your kitchen or bathroom getting trapped in the crawl space under your roof.
Talk to us to learn more about vapour permeable sarking solutions.
If you live in a rural area, it’s vital you take every step to proactively defend your property.
Some sarking materials are designed with bushfire-prone areas in mind, using fire-resistant materials to prevent the ingress of embers into your roof. If you life in a fire zone, consider the Bushfire Attack Level (BAL) rating of your sarking.
A lot of planning goes into getting the right roof installed in your home – chief among them is the type of sarking you choose. While it might not be the most visible or widely-understood part of the process, it’s no doubt incredibly important you get it right.
If you want to ensure that every single step of your metal roof installation goes off without a hitch, you’ll want to talk to an expert.
We take a great amount of pride in the services we offer our customers: you can trust us to walk you through the metal roof installation process from start to finish.
Call us on 1300 576 075 or book an obligation-free inspection today.
