Cool your Hawaii house down - I did!

I recently bought a house in Aina Haina with a flat roof, which is very common in Hawaii. It's actually called "torch down" or "monier" roofing. Houses with a flat roof often get very hot.

Here's why. The material on top gets hot of course, with the Hawaii sun beating down on it all day, nearly everyday, nearly all year. Even in winter the sun is hot here. Shade is valued as high as anything else. So the sun beats down, heats up the top of the roof, which heats up the air just under the roof, which keeps trapped air in between the ceiling and the roof.

So, a friend of mine was over at our house on a hot day and recommended a product called Hydrostop. The product cost about $2500 to coat the entire roof, and they wanted $2000 to put it on, but I paid 2 hourly workers $100 a day for 2 days, and saved a lot of money.

I wasn't sure how well it was going to work, but after we put it on a small portion of the roof, I went up and touched the roof. WOW. It was actually cool to the touch. It felt like water it was so cold. I still wasn't sure how much difference it would make in my house.

After the 2 days, we were anxious to see how the house would feel the next day in the blazing Hawaii sun.

Again, WOW.

The house was about 10 degrees cooler than the day before, even though it was the same outside. It's now been a month or so since we applied the Hydrostop, and we are very pleased.

Even if you don't live in Hawaii, if you have a flat roof and your house is hot, you should definitely try Hydrostop.