A lot of homeowners don’t realize it but the shingle roof on your home actually requires routine maintenance if you want it to last a long time and avoid costly repair bills in the process. A good shingle roof should last you about 15 years but that won’t be the case if you don’t routinely inspect and maintain your roof. It’s not as hard as you think and, in most cases, well within the range of a homeowner with some D-I-Y experience around the house.
To inspect your roof, you’ll have to climb on top of it using a ladder but before you do that you’ll want to make sure you’re physically capable of doing that. The roofing industry is one of the most dangerous industries to work in as it is routinely in the top ten annually for accidents and deaths so safety precautions should be taken by a homeowner looking to work on his roof.
One of the first things you’ll want to do is get on your roof and just give it a quick look over. Obviously you want to check out the general condition of the shingles on your roof. The first thing you want to observe is that your shingle roof is in decent enough shape for the following season. Roof shingles come with a thick layer of granules on their surface to protect your roof from the elements and you want to make sure most of your shingles still have most of these granules in place.
You may find a few shingles here and there that are disproportionately worn and that’s fine as you can always just replace those shingles individually. But if you find most of your roof is looking worn, it may be time to call in a professional roofer to give you his professional opinion.
If the majority of your roof appears to be in good shape you can continue inspecting your roof. If you have some trees over your roof, one of the things you’ll have to routinely do is get on your roof and remove any loose debris and leaves from your roof. Leaves have a tendency to gather together and collect moisture which produces humidity directly on top of your roof shingles which will slowly deteriorate them. If you don’t routinely clean up your roof, this can slowly lead to some leaks. And if you don’t get to those leaks they could turn into bigger problems that require expensive repairs.
If you have valleys on your roof it’s also very important to remove debris from these valleys as the debris can sometimes block the water from flowing properly on your roof by forming a damn/barrier. By stepping onto your roof every few months, you’ll be able to spot these impediments to water flow before they become a problem.
Next on the list is checking your roof for loose or missing shingles. This problem poses a particular threat to your home because without shingles there is only a thin sheet of roofing paper that separates your wooden roof from water and we all know what water does to wood. And that’s why it’s so important to periodically check your roof. If you can’t check it every couple of months you should at least check it our prior to the bad weather season.
Replacing loose or worn shingles is doable if you’re handy with a hammer. If the shingle is just loose, you’ll just want to fasten it down with some roofing cement which you can find at the local home improvement store. That is, of course, if the shingle is still in good shape. If it’s not, you’ll have to replace it.
To replace worn or missing shingles you’ll want to first loosen the surrounding shingles. You do this so you can squeeze the new shingle into place. Roof shingles are applied in an over-lapping pattern so that water can flow down and away from your roof so you’ll have to decipher that pattern and then work accordingly.
Finally you’ll want to enter your attic and look for water damage. Evidence of water damage in your attic would obviously be a sign of a leak and something you’ll want to address immediately. You can easily spot water stains on wood by looking for dark stains on the wood. These leaks often occur over areas where flashing is used to cover angles, openings (chimneys, vents, etc.) and joints in the roof so make sure to cross-check those areas on your roof.
For a lot of homeowners finding a leak is the first sign that they need to call in a professional roofer to handle and fix the problem. And that’s not a bad idea as your roof is definitely something you don’t want to mess around with. But the key to inspecting and maintaining your roof is to prevent these leaks from happening in the first place and to prevent small leaks from turning into huge repair bills!
For more tips on how to get the most out of your roof and to find local roofing contractors in your area, please visit: Handy American.
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