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How to insulate a flat roof in desert climate with exposed beams

BillyEaster | Posted in General Questions on

I’m currently working with a contractor totally renovating a house in the Californian desert. I want to have exposed beams inside the house and from what I’m learning in order to achieve tat I should be building a “warm” roof with the insulation on the outside.

My problem is this: The contractors already laid rolled roofing directly onto the plywood deck. they have installed the following:

CERBLP
Flintlastic SA Playbase
Low Slope Residential Solution
 
CERCFLMOB
Flintastic SA CAP

They say the shingle is solar reflective but it is black and feels burning to the touch in the desert sun.
Below the roof deck we have 8″ beams and they say they can insulate between the below the roof and still leave some portion of the beams exposed. Is this actually possible? And is it a good idea or will there be a big problem of condensation building up and ending up with a rotting leaky roof?

These are all things I am wondering but given that I have learnt through my research that  Warm roof would actually be better that a cold roof, can I ask them to install insulation above the roof deck with out asking them to remove the shingle they have already laid out?

i know this is kinda crazy as the work there has already been done but is it possible? Then we could also install white shingle which I’m gathering would be much more solar reflective. 

i would really appreciate and feedback on this.

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