Five Roofing Mistakes You Don't Want To Make
A roof can last two decades or longer if it's properly cared for. Unfortunately, benign neglect can lead to a shortened life and water damage inside your home.
1. Ignoring Your Soffits
The soffits are the underside of your eaves. All soffits have small vents in them, which are part of your roof's ventilation system. These vents are typically covered in small metal screens that are designed to keep birds and other pests out of your roof. If pests get in the roof, then they can do damage from the underside of the roof. Inspect your soffits regularly and replace any soffit screens if you notice them missing.
2. Letting Moss Grow
A mossy roof may look quaint, but it can lead to water damage and premature shingle degradation. Moss sometimes works its way beneath the shingles, lifting them up so that water seeps underneath and into your attic. The moss can also dislodge the protective gravel granules on the shingle surfaces, making them ineffective as a protector of your home. Moss requires a simple but ongoing plan of attack. You must clean the moss off the roof, often yearly, using a specially formulated moss killer. A roofer can also install zinc strips on the roof to help minimize growth.
3. Skipping Tree Pruning
What do trees have to do with your roof? When the branches become overgrown, they can overhang the roof and scrape off shingles. Worse, the branches can break off and puncture your roof. Always prune back branches so that they don't overhang the roof. Also, make sure any weak or dead branches are removed immediately so that they don't crash onto your home the next time the wind blows.
4. Not Cleaning Your Gutters
Dirty gutters can lead to all sorts of roofing woes. Water can back up against the wooden eaves, leading to rot. In winter, runoff from melting snow may backup at the full gutter and flow underneath the shingles under the roof edge. This results in ice dams and leaks inside the house. You can avoid all sorts of roof damage simply by cleaning out your gutters every spring and fall.
5. Skipping Hail Inspections
A roof can look perfectly fine to the untrained eye after a hail storm, but often there is hidden damage. Hail compresses the shingles and knocks off the protective granules, rendering your shingles weak and more prone to leaks. If there's a hail storm, bring in a local roofer to inspect for possible damages.
Contact a roofing repair professional if any of these have happened to your roof.
