You've heard plenty about the importance of having a durable roof—one that protects your home from wind, rain, and snow. But what about the sun?

Living in places like California, Arizona, and Nevada on the West Coast means you're no stranger to hot, sunny summers, with temperatures ranging from the high 90s to over 100ºF

If you’re on the East Coast—whether it’s Florida, Georgia, or South Carolina—you probably know what temperatures feel like in the upper 90s and lower 100s.

Fortunately, choosing the right roof for these climates can provide you with that much-desired relief. Here’s what you need to know if you’re trying to find the best roofing materials for hot and humid climates.

Characteristics of The Best Roof Materials Hot and Humid Climates.

When you’re choosing a roofing material for hot and humid climates, you need to determine if the material has the following characteristics:

• Reflectivity: Dark roofs absorb heat, which can transfer into your home, making your cooling system work harder. A light-colored roof or reflective material will absorb less heat, helping keep the inside of your home cooler and your energy bills down.

• Thermal Emittance (TE): The ideal roof material in hot, humid climates will also have a high thermal emittance. This means instead of holding onto the heat it absorbs, it releases it at infrared radiation to help keep it cool.

• TE, combined with reflectivity, creates a "cool roof," a special kind of roofing explicitly designed with hot climates in mind.

• Moisture Resistance: In humid climates, as you'd find on the East Coast, moisture can be a significant problem. Humid weather can lead to mold, mildew, and possibly even corrosion with some metal roofing. Ensuring a roofing material is moisture-resistant will prevent this.

• Insulation: A roof that adds insulation to your home is extremely beneficial as it will help ensure the cool air from your AC system will not escape and maintain steady temperatures. It will also help lower your utility bills since it minimizes the loss.

• Ventilation: Ventilation is important as it helps reduce heat build-up and promotes airflow that ensures there is no condensation from humidity, which can lead to issues like mold and mildew and make it feel warmer inside.

Cool Roof Requirements

Cool roofs are roofs designed with hot climates in mind, and are a requirement of California’s Title 24. These roofs, which are required in many parts of California, help decrease the amount of solar energy the roof absorbs.

They are designed to be highly reflective and also have high TE values, reflecting and releasing most of the heat from the sun. This helps keep indoor temperatures cool and reduces some areas' common heat island effect. Overall, cool roofs help keep you cool and reduce your energy bill significantly.

Best Roofing Materials for Hot and Humid Climates

Here are some of the best roofing materials for hot and humid climates.

Asphalt

Asphalt shingles are asphalt-coated fiberglass sheets coated in crushed stone granules. The asphalt makes the fiberglass water-resistant and adds stiffness without completely removing the flexibility. This makes the material easy to work with and install.

Lighter-colored asphalt shingles can reflect sunlight and provide a more affordable option than roofing materials for hot climates. While a cost-effective option, it is not the most durable, as they are prone to wind damage and aren't very energy-efficient. They also typically only last around 15 to 20 years.

Metal Roofing

Metal roofing isn't new, but it has become more popular and is one of the best roofing materials for hot and humid climates as it is naturally reflective. You can paint metal roofing any color; lighter colors will add to its reflectivity. It is a durable option that comes in different styles and textures and can last up to 80 years with the proper maintenance.

Metal roofs are also expensive and can be difficult to repair if you choose sheet metal; they may also rust more quickly in humid climates, depending on the type of metal you choose.

Clay Tiles

Clay tiles are popular in places like California and Florida for their class Mediterranean feel and have long been considered one of the best materials for hot climates. The light terracotta color helps to reflect sunlight and the barrel shape most clay tiles have allows for ventilation, which helps prevent mold growth in humid climates.

Unfortunately, clay tiles are expensive and heavy, requiring additional structural support, and can chip over time, especially with impacts.

Slate

Natural slate is a beautiful roofing option that can last well over 100 years and create a feeling of luxury. While slate is typically dark, it is an insulating material that will help keep your home cool. It also has a natural ability to help regulate the humidity levels in your home. Being naturally water resistant also means that you don't have to worry about mold or mildew growth

Composite Roofing

Composite roofing is a material that seems to do it all, making it another of the best roofing materials for hot and humid climates. Composite roofing is a sustainable option made using recycled materials compressed together to create a highly durable product resistant to UV damage, impact, water, and fire. You can get composite tiles in popular styles like cedar shake, slate, and barrel tiles, each offering a realistic look without concerns of weight or maintenance.

Many composite roofing brands offer "cool roof" colors explicitly designed with hot and humid climates in mind.

Brava Synthetic Roofing Tiles: The Best Roofing Material for Hot and Humid Climates

Brava is a brand that offers superior-quality synthetic roofing products. Our roofing tiles are made from compressed recycled plastics, natural mineral-based colorants, UV stabilizers, and other sustainable materials. This combination results in the most durable and realistic synthetic roofing material on the market—all of which are:

• Class C to Class A fire-rated

• Class 4 impact-rated

• UV resistant

• Wind resistant, meeting Miami-Dade County certifications

• Resistant to color fading and chipping, and

• Moisture Resistant

On top of all of these benefits, Brava Roof Tiles not only come in a wide range of color options but also come in three different styles:

Cedar Shakes

Brava Cedar Shakes come in 14 color options, ranging from a darker black to pure white. These colors have a great dimensional feel, adding to their realistic appearance. These shakes also offer two Title 24 Compliant Cool Roof colors: Cool Lake Forest, pictured above, and Cool Weathered.

Slate

While our Old World Slate tiles don't offer a cool roof option, mixed into the 15 color possibilities are perfect options for hot and humid areas, like Atlantic, Graphite, Washington, pictured above, White, and Tuscan Clay.

Spanish Barrel

Our Spanish barrel tiles come in 17 colors, with a range of varying terra cotta-based reds and browns. There are also other options like white, black, and even green. The two cool roof options are Cool French Clay and Cool Terra Cotta. Pictured above is our Tuscan Clay color.

While these colors are offered on our site, you can create combinations to fit your desired style. You can even make a custom color if none of these appeal to your aesthetic.

Brava Roof Tiles in Action

Here are a few examples of Brava's roof tiles in action, using some of the great color options mentioned above:

Tuscan Clay on A Multi-Family Home

This multi-family home is the picture of cool with its white stucco siding and bright Tuscan Clay Spanish barrel tiles, which are the perfect tone to help reflect the sun’s rays and keep everyone inside cool and comfortable, even on the hottest days.

A Shaded Retreat

This home is surrounded by trees on two sides, which provides some shade from the intense summer sun, and our Onyx slate tiles shine on this roof. Despite the dark color of the tiles, their insulating capabilities and built-in ventilation help keep your home cooler by preventing the escape of cool air.

Brown Waterfront Roofing

This home set along a canal has a medium toned roof in Terra Cotta Brown, a perfect color to reflect a substantial amount of heat. Combined with the shape of the tile, which allows for excellent ventilation, and the insulating qualities of Brava roofing, your home will maintain a perfect temperature.

A Classic Design

This home has a classic exterior, red brick siding topped with a roof covered in beautiful Brava Old World Slate in Light Arendale. Like other examples on this list, this gray is the perfect shade to reflect light, helping to keep you cool during those hot summer months.

Building A Cooler Roof With Brava

Living somewhere that gets a lot of sunlight can be great if you don't like the winter. But it can also become unbearable come summer when temperatures keep creeping higher and higher and humidity levels make you want to hide inside.

When you live in these areas, it’s also important that you have the right roof, and Brava can help with their UV and moisture-resistant, insulating roofing materials that come in numerous colors perfect for hot and humid climates.

Contact Brava today to learn more about our products and find the perfect colors for your area.