Each year, thousands of Arizona residents email or call Rosie Romero’s radio show with questions about everything from preventing fires in their chimneys to getting rid of tree roots invading their sewer system. His goal is to provide answers that suit the specific lifestyle wherever someone lives in Arizona.
Q: I have a home that has a Southwestern territorial design with traditional concrete scuppers that drain onto the ground. I would like to create a rainwater collection system to gather all the water pouring out of the scuppers so I can reuse it in my backyard. But how do I create a closed system like that when I have these scuppers and no real rain gutters?
A: The best way to capture the water coming out of a scupper like that is to find a company that puts in seamless gutter systems and have workers install a collector box that mounts on the side of your home and surrounds the scupper. Then a downspout is attached to the bottom of the collector box; that spout then carries the water into a collection system. The collector box and downspout can also be painted to match the color of your home. Sometimes the collector box drains into a tank of some kind. Sometimes it goes into your yard itself.
Q: In 2007 I had my home’s roofing changed from cedar shakes to asphalt shingles. The roofers advised me to remove the metal roof-peak vent at that time and to install a mesh-like material with shingles over it. My home does not have gable vents. Currently, the attic temperatures run at about 180 degrees. Last weekend, I installed a solar tube for additional lighting inside the house and noticed that once I opened the roof, the heat really rushed out of the attic as if it were being blown out.
How can I get my attic to ventilate better? It seems to pull air out well from the eaves, but that doesn’t do much to relieve the temperature in the attic.
A: While the ridge vents installed on your home are indeed a good source for ventilation, their limited square footage is insufficient to provide the ventilation that you need. Since you have no gable vents on your home, you could install some dormer vents in sufficient number to give your attic better ventilation. Whirlybird or turbine vents could work well also. But their profile and projection above the roof plane is sometimes unattractive.
We like the dormer vents because of their lower profile and larger ventilation capability. Any good roofing company can install these vents for you, and cutting them into a shingle roof is not hard to do.
Q: After I had solar panels put on my house last year, my insurance company told me that my roof is too old to insure. In fact, a roofing company now tells me that my roof will only last two more years. If that’s truly the condition of my roof, then why would the solar company install the panels when I’d have to take them off again so soon for reroofing?
A: A solar company should alert you to the condition of your roof before installing any solar unit. We also recommend that homeowners have an inspection by a licensed roofer before considering a solar installation.
