The Metal-Era Blog

Energy Efficiency at the Roof Edge: Thermal Advantages of a Wood Nailer Alternative

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In addition to the added strength a wood nailer alternative like Eliminailer-T provides at the roof edge, one of its main benefits are the thermal advantages provided to improve the overall energy efficiency of the building.

Using a traditional wood nailer prevents a contractor from being able to install insulation all the way to the roof edge. Insulation will typically stop well short of the edge, allowing heat to escape more rapidly from the corners and edge of the roof, resulting in a lower R-value for your insulation. The R-Value is the measurement of the effectiveness of your thermal insulation materials and is important to meeting the energy code requirements on your building projects. 

Take this building for example:


Thermal Advantages


These thermal scans from are from Columbia High School in Illinois. At 6:00pm on a 30-degree January evening, this 20-year-old EPDM roof with a stripped in drip edge can be seen letting heat escape from the building’s edge. The culprit is the insulation which abruptly stops 6-8” from the edge.
 
Using a wood nailer alternative, such as Eliminailer-T, would allow the insulation and coverboard to be extended and secure continuous insulation all the way to the roof edge, while eliminating horizontal membrane penetration at the perimeter.

Eliminailer is very versatile and comes in many different face heights for use in a variety of reroof and new construction applications. Using 3” Eliminailer-T replaces two wood nailers, allowing up to 3.5” of added insulation and cover board at the roof edge and can help provide up to a 35% increase in R-value. The 5.25” face height replaces three wood nailers allowing 5.75” of additional insulation and cover board, yielding up to a 47% increase compared to a standard wood nailer construction.
 
Here is a helpful resource to understand the minimum insulation R-value requirements for non-residential buildings from one of our partners, Carlisle Syntec Systems.

Sources: https://roofonline.com/r-value
https://www.carlislesyntec.com/Document-Viewer?documentId=50c7f966-8aa5-212b-b4ce-144ae410f0ca#page=3&zoom=auto,-21,546

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