The roof is an important part of your home. It protects you and your loved ones, as well as your belongings, against the elements. However, we don’t usually bother maintaining it until we realize it’s not looking after us properly. At this time, it usually could lead to an expensive repair that could have been avoided if it was regularly maintained. With this in mind, here are some tips to help you take care of your roof.
Annual Roof Health Checks
Your car has regular safety checks, as do you. But how many of you reading this article actually have regular roof maintenance completed on your property? It would make sense to have your biggest financial investment checked annually.
Annual roof checks should be done by a qualified roofer, with experience of working on roofs similar to yours. They’ll be able to spot any issues or potential ones. They’ll be able to advise about any roof restoration your roof may need to prevent expensive repairs later down the road. Such checks will examine your roof’s structure and material(s). It may even extend to the guttering. Of course, there’s nothing stopping you from checking your roof, yourself, but an expert is someone that knows what they’re looking for and may spot something you miss.
Check Your Front and Back Yards
These are areas of our property we encounter on an almost daily basis, yet we only may use our front yard to get in and out of the property and only use our backyard on days where there’s good weather or we’re not too tired to enjoy a barbie or a swim in the pool.
The thing is, our yards can hold a wealth of information about our roofs – if we know what to look for and we do this regularly. For instance, parts of shingles can show up anywhere. If you discover them, you need to inspect your roof to see whether they need replacing or repairing. Dark patches are usually a sign that your shingles have become detached from that area of the roof.
Shingles can become detached for many reasons, including general wear and tear, animals, weather, and old age, especially when the sealant used to stick them starts to weaken. These can easily be replaced by you if you know how, or a roofer.
Leading on from shingles, granules are also another thing that can loosen and land in your gutter. This isn’t considered much of a problem with a newly built property, however with an older property it could be an indication that your shingles need some TLC.
Its granules protect your shingles from the sun’s harmful UV rays. Without granules, your shingles will become damaged. They could crack whilst your loosened granules will cause your gutter to clog up. It’s at this point you’ll need to have your roof inspected if you’re unable to get up there and see anything that requires repairing.
Check for Water Spots on Your Ceilings
We very often don’t check our ceilings for signs of potential roof damage. Many of us mistakenly think that it may be too late by the time water spots are on our ceilings. This is especially if the water has traveled down from the roof and actually into your home.
However, this isn’t necessarily the case as internal pipes could also be causing the water spots. Regardless of how they’ve arrived, it’s important to discover their origins. This is because you want to prevent further damage from occurring and ensure your structure isn’t affected by it.
It’s important to remember that where you see a water spot may not be where the actual leak is. This is because the water often moves along your roof until it finds an area it can penetrate into your insulation from your roof panels to leave a water spot. Discovering it can be a process of elimination that an experienced roofer can help you with.
These tips may seem like common sense, but if followed they’re actually pretty amazing because they’ll prevent you from paying tons of money for roof repairs. Your roof is just as important as your front and back doors in keeping you and your loved ones safe. It may not keep out intruders the same way you would expect your doors to, but it will keep out unwanted guests, like rodents, and it will keep you protected from the elements. If your front door has a crack in it, you’d notice it and get it repaired or even replaced. Don’t become complacent with your roof just because it’s out of sight. Ensure it’s regularly maintained so that your property is too.
