glare off new colorbond roof

[middle dora]

G'day

I have been trawling through the forums whenever I need some technical advice and have found many good ideas and suggestions, but this time I'm stumped. A newly installed colorbond roof on a glasshouse conversion is throwing glare from the westerly sun into the family room windows and doors - mainly I suspect because the ground slopes down from the house to the back fence and the new roof is at eye level from inside the house.

I've been thinking about whitewash to lessen the glare, but would welcome any suggestions.

Middle dora

[The Roofer]

Reflectivity is a complex subject - here is one article (http://blog.shedeye.com.au/2011/04/reflecting-on-reflectivity/)that may help? The problem with colour - especially white is the reflective index that is determined by gloss level, colour, etc etc - science is involved here. Check out the BlueScope site on CoolMax (http://coolmax.colorbond.com/5?gclid=CLiX6vTchq4CFUVspAodpTpP3g) - but white is fairly good at reflecting light! Whitewash may lessen the glare by a small % but you will have to look at different colours (absorbance levels) - the paint outlet guys will know all this as well!

[munruben]

Probably the best colour for anti glare would be a Matt Black. No reflection from that but of course black does absorb heat and the building inside becomes hotter than normal. White is very reflective so I don't think that would help much. The new colourbond roof will become less reflective as the years go on but that doesn't help at the moment. I had a situation where reflection was a problem and fixed it by placing a screen a few meters in front of the window. It was just a trellis with some Jasmine covering it and it provided us with a barrier and of course no glare from the offending object.

[middle dora]

Many thanks for the replies. I did go for a light colorbond roof for its ability to reduce heat but forgot that the roof would be visible from the house. Screens on the deck opposite the family room windows will have to be the answer.