Do you have home renovation superpowers? Sometimes the best renovations are the ones that no one notices. People look at your house as a whole and see a tidy, beautiful home. They don’t see the energy-efficiency upgrades and leak-proofing that you’ve completed. Here’s how to complete those stealthy but critically-important renovations.

Awnings Add Energy Efficiency

One clandestine way to make your home more energy efficient is to add an awning. Awnings are like sunscreen for your home. Place them in a location where your home experiences a lot of direct sunlight during the spring, summer, and fall, and you’ll moderate your home energy bills as you drop the temperature inside your home.

Add Solar Shingles for Invisible Energy Production

If you want to get even more energy efficient, consider adding your own homegrown energy to the mix. While solar panels can significantly change the look of your home, solar shingles are nearly invisible. They look like shingles, but they can generate 60 watts of power per solar shingle. Adding solar shingles to your roof it is possible to generate 40 to 60 percent of your home’s electricity budget, especially if you’re already taking steps to reduce those summer electricity needs by cooling your home with an awning.

Improve Drainage to Decrease Leaks

Another powerful and nearly-invisible technique to benefit your home is drainage improvement. One of the biggest sources of flowing water around your home is your roof. You need to manage this water and its flow or it can cascade down onto the areas near your foundation, causing cracks in your foundation and leaks in your basement. The movement of water down the outside of your home can also lead to damage to your siding. If water or ice backs up onto your roof, it can back up under your shingles, causing leaks in your attic. To improve drainage, add a gutter cover. These covers reduce the accumulation of debris in your gutters and allow the water to move easily away from the building.

Landscape Design Can Help Leak-Proof Your Home

Gorgeous landscape design can be more than just good-looking. It can be helpful for your drainage as well. What happens as the water moves off your roof? If it spills out onto your lawn and back toward your foundation, you have a problem. Reduce drainage problems in your landscape by adding rain gardens where the yard is damp or shifting soil to another area to create a natural water diversion. This looks like gardening and you could even create garden beds to trap or divert water, but it’s really a clever way to manage water in your garden landscape.

When you’re looking for ways to improve your home efficiency, reduce maintenance, and create a tidy, beautiful home, contact Harry Helmet. Our roofing, solar, and gutter products will help you complete the home renovations you need. Contact us today to learn more about roofing, awnings, and gutter guards and how you can seamlessly integrate them into your home.

Written by Del Thebaud