Unbearably hot apartment

I assume he has no air conditioning? With that in mind, I read once somewhere (don't remember now), if you take an ordinary fan and place ice behind it, it will cool your place off. I have no idea if it works, but it might be worth a try. Other than placing a box fan in the window to pull in cool air (if there is any), that's my best suggestion.. Let me know if he tries it, and if it works!

Very simple you buy a white roof coat and color over the black coal layer. They have lots of products in diy stores which are suitable for roofs meaning anti -leaking.

First of all, I don't think it's the black color of the tar that makes the apartment so hot, there are so many buildings with tar on the roof and some of those apartments are not so hot. The reason for that is that there is good weather proof insulation between the tar and the apartment. I think your brother's problem is lack of proper insulation rather thenthe tar on the roof.

I don't know whether your bother owns or rent the apartment, and how much money he wants to spend on a solution. The proper expensive way of solving this would be to invest in really good insulation. It's expensive, but in the long run it will save a lot of money in heating \ AC bills.

A couple of cheap ways of cooling down a space without having to spend a lot of money - if the apartment in very sunny, it might be a good idea to get some shutters \ blinds to block some of the sun out, if the windows are shade, then it's also a good idea not to open all the windows all the time to let the heat in, but to open just 2 windows that are in different walls  to let some air flow.

Another cheap but powerful trick - get a fan (doesn't even have to be a big expensive one,  and hang a wet sheet in front of it - it might make the place look strange, but the wind from the fan will blow the water from the sheet into the apartment and cool it down.

Also - get a lot of potted plants and water them on a regular basis - it works in the same way walking through a parkk is often cooler then walking through a street.

Hope this helps.

I lived in a 3rd floor apt. for many years....first of all, heat rises, so the black roof, I feel is a part of the problem, but not the only one..I installed window air conditioners...but only in the living room and bedroom....my apt. was very long, so cross-ventilation was almost impossible..depending on the shape of the apt., window placement, etc., you could see if cross ventilating would be of some help, if he didn't want to invest in a/c units...cross ventilating is when you place a fan, say, in the room furthest away, in a window, with the fan blowing out...then the other fan is placed as opposite from that fan as possible, blowing in....this creates a cross draft..only disadvantage is, the room where the fan is blowing out will not be as cool..ALSO you can just use the 'blowing out' fan in one room and open the window/s in the furtherst room, and that would also move the air... it's really hard to explain!! but I hope it gives you an idea of what I'm trying to say!!! or he could get an a/c unit for, say, his bedroom and use the c/v and fans for the other rooms.......good luck!!