Roof farm will be used to study how roofs age
The American Modern Insurance Group has teamed up with the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) to launch a roof farm project that will last for 25 years and will hopefully provide new insights into how roofs age over time and how the elements play a role in that aging process.
The project
The roof farm project was officially launched on May 20th of this year in Ohio. It consists of four structures and each is equipped with panels containing different roofing materials. The roof farm also includes a solar-powered weather station which will record weather date throughout the duration of the project. The study will be conducted for a 25 year period and the roofing panels will be thoroughly inspected every 5 years during the project.
Researchers hope that an observation of the roofing panels in combination with data gathered by the weather station will provide them with new information about how roofs age, particularly in the Northern United States. The roof farm in Ohio is the third to be built. It joins two others also funded by the IBHS located in South Carolina and Wisconsin. IBHS hopes that with three different roof farms in three different locations, they will be able to get some valuable information about how roofs age in different climates.
Implications
Though the roof farm project isn’t the first study into how roofs age, it is one of the most expansive covering 25 years in three different climates. The American Modern Insurance Group and the IBHS hope that the study will help them learn more about roofing materials and create new standards. In the long run, this can allow for higher quality roofing materials which can last longer and require less maintenance in a variety of different climates. The research could ultimately save homeowners millions in roof repair and replacement costs.
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Source: cincinnati.com/story/news/local/clermontcounty/2015/06/11/american-modern-insurance-group-roof-farm-project/71079116/