The heat is on! All over our country, temperatures are reaching record levels. Add in the heat index and many locations are sweltering. Most people, at least those who work indoors, can handle the heat simply by trying to get something done inside instead of exploring the outdoors. But there are specific issues you should be aware of, and certain things you should be looking for, as you explore your home or office.
Here are some things to look for in the interior of your house.
- Warped Flooring: Extreme heat and associated summer humidity cause hardwood and laminate floorboards to expand. This leads to cupping (edges pushing upward), buckling (separating from the subfloor completely), or cracking.
- Cracked Drywall and Peeling Paint: High heat forces drywall to expand and contract rapidly, leading to hairline or deep cracks in the bedroom walls and ceilings. Excessive heat also breaks down paint adhesives, causing it to flake, bubble, and peel.
- Sticking Doors and Windows: Prolonged heat exposure expands wooden doors and window frames, making them tightly wedge into their slots so they stick or refuse to close properly.
- Faded and Damaged Furnishings: Intense UV exposure and solar heat filtering through bedroom windows will fade carpets, break down mattress fibers, and warp or dull wood finishes on bedroom furniture.
On the outside of your house, look carefully for these items.
- Baked and Curled Shingles: When an attic overheats (often reaching 150°F to 180°F), it literally bakes asphalt roof shingles from the inside out. This causes them to curl, lose protective granules, crack, and fail prematurely.
- Warped Roof Decking: The intense heat can cause the wooden roof decking (sheathing) underneath your shingles to buckle, warp, or sag, compromising the structural support of the entire roof line.
- Dried-Out Caulking: Heat dries out the flexible flashing caulk around chimneys, roof valleys, and vents, making it brittle and creating path zones for water leaks.
What are the specific areas where you should look? Some areas of homes and offices are highly vulnerable to extreme heat due to their orientation, construction, and heat-generating equipment.
- Upper Floors: Heat rises naturally, and upper-level rooms (top-floor offices, second-story bedrooms, or lofts) trap warm air that infiltrates from lower levels and uninsulated attics.
- South- & West-Facing Rooms: Rooms with large windows facing south or west receive intense, direct sunlight, dramatically increasing solar heat gain during peak afternoon hours.
- Rooms Above Garages: These “bonus rooms” are often inadequately insulated and are constantly exposed to ambient heat radiating from the garage space below.
- IT & Server Rooms (Offices): Rooms housing densely packed computers, servers, and printing equipment generate significant indoor heat and heavily strain standard HVAC systems.
- Commercial Kitchens & Breakrooms (Offices): Ovens, microwaves, refrigerators, and dishwashers continuously radiate heat into surrounding workspaces.
Taking a walk around your home or office, you might spy areas of concern – areas that you can address before the damage becomes significant. Though higher temperatures do not directly cause fires, rapidly rising heat does help to create the ideal conditions for fires to ignite and spread.