When the summer heat gets into your home, it can make you feel like you’re a melting, sticky puddle and can overload the air conditioner until your energy bill goes through the stratosphere. But a little remodeling can make an enormous difference to your comfort and your bills.
Simple Remodeling for the Exterior Walls
Some of the daytime warmth stored in your home’s exterior walls will eventually make its way inside, even through the best insulation. Heat stored in the walls will really make its presence felt after sundown and keep the day’s warmth in when things outside are cooling off.
But you don’t have to redesign or replace entire walls to reduce the amount of heat getting inside. For any area that is often baked in sunlight, consider either painting it a more heat reflective color or add exterior blinds, shades and sails to keep the sun off.
Get the Air Circulating in Your Home
Airflow is crucial to any home’s summertime comfort level. The more air can circulate, the more comfortable things are. It’s that simple.
Consider ways to increase your home’s ventilation. Open up some walls, add more windows, change the shapes of windows, or do anything to open up new pathways for air to move and flow freely. A skylight or some clerestory windows (ones installed near the highest ceilings) will provide rising warm air with pathways to escape and prevent it from accumulating.
The Roof: The First Line of Defense Against the Heat
Your roof bears the main brunt of the sun’s summer attack, absorbing a great deal of heat, so a new heat reflective one may just save you from sizzling. This is a good move especially if your roof is getting older and has seen better days. However, if a new roof is beyond your budget, your existing one can become much more reflective by adding a solar reflective coating.
Cooler Colors Inside the Home
A little psychology can help you feel cooler, also. While a cool color in a room may not take the temperature down even one degree, it sure feels cooler than a warm color. Blues, greens or neutral hues can ease your state of mind on those relentless days when the Florida combination of heat and humidity can be brutal. Besides, your indoors always benefit from a revamped look.
The Value of Outdoor Spaces
Remember that home remodeling is not restricted to just the house structure. Here in Tampa, we can enjoy our yards all year round. So, spaces like outdoor kitchens, living rooms and bathrooms can be a great way to increase your living space while also cooling you off at night. They can also make your entire home property look charming, inviting and even luxurious.
An outdoor bathroom, especially, could be a sanity-saving sanctuary where you can cool off surrounded by nature. An outdoor tub and shower, curtained off by lush greenery, could make you feel like you are at an expensive spa in your very own garden. Neighbors and friends will want to party and relax at your place during those dog days of summer.
Greg Nelson is the owner of Nelson Construction & Renovations Inc. He is a Florida State Certified Building Contractor, creating artistry in all areas of design and construction projects. He is a musician, and artist. A husband and father, Greg appreciates all the wonderful elements of family life.
Creative Commons Attribution: Permission is granted to repost this article in its entirety with credit to Nelson Construction and Renovations and a clickable link back to this page.
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