How Proper Roof Maintenance Can Prevent an Emergency
A roof emergency doesn’t always happen in a moment. Of course there can be a true emergency like a tree falling or a damaging storm, but most ‘emergencies’ that happen to your roof actually happen over time with small wear and tear. This is good news because it means with the right inspection and care, you can often keep the worst from happening, avoiding major repairs or emergencies later on!
Read on to see some of our team’s best advice for maintaining your roof well now to prevent a disaster later.
Avoid Walking On Your Roof
This might seem obvious but we have to mention it. Walking on your roof is not a good idea if you are not a trained professional. Not only is there a risk of falling, but you can also weaken and dislodge shingles on your roof. Instead, use a ladder to access gutters and eaves as necessary, and call a professional for anything else.
Leave Roof Vents Open
Roof vents aren’t just there for decoration, they are installed to help keep your roof and home in good condition. Leave vents open to help release pent-up heat and allow for the ventilation that your roof needs. If not properly vented, your roof can trap heat and moisture in the summer months which can cause serious damage to your roof, ceilings, and walls.
Trim Your Trees
If you have trees growing close to your house, with branches extending over your roof, it’s an absolute necessity to keep the branches trimmed and healthy. This can help prevent damage from falling limbs in storms, and proper trimming should reduce the amount of smaller branches and leaves that get caught on your roof and gutters, damaging it or weighing it down. You also don’t want branches rubbing against your roof and harming it.
We recommend finding a local tree service to come out and regularly evaluate the health of your trees to reduce the risk of trees falling due to pests or sickness. Trees are a beautiful addition to your home and property but are a huge responsibility as well.
Clean Out Your Gutters
This is a classic, but don’t forget to clean out your gutters regularly. We recommend twice a year for the best maintenance of your roof. Debris, leaves, sticks, and litter in your gutters can cause many problems for you now, or weaken the roof for more problems later on.
Monitor for Damage After Extreme Weather
The MidSouth is known for its fair share of stormy weather, which makes homes in this area susceptible to damage from wind and rain. If a severe storm has recently passed through, we recommend taking some time to evaluate your roof and see if any damage has been done, or if your roof has been weakened.
Use a ladder to climb alongside your roof, and then you can use binoculars to take a better look along the entirety of your roof. Do you see any lifting, curling, or cracking of shingles? Wear and tear around chimneys or vents? Leaking or damaged gutters? Missing shingles?
If you notice any of these, it is a good idea to keep an eye on them as they can lead to roof emergencies in the future if not handled appropriately. It might also be a good idea to call out a roofing company like Pinnacle Roofing to see if maintenance is required to get your roof back in great shape.
Protect Your Roof During Winter
Winter time can be especially hard on your roof, with freezing and thawing, and often lots of moisture trapped on the roof in the form of snow or ice. One of the main things you should look out for is ice damming. This is when it has been freezing and melting and refreezing and a layer of ice forms along the edge of your roof, trapping water that might potentially leak into your house causing some serious damage.
The best way to prevent ice dams is by preventing excessive hot air from leaking out of your roof and melting the snow or ice on it. This can be done by insulating and patching any holes on the inside of your roof.
Be sure to never go up on your roof yourself during icy conditions (or at all!) to remove ice, it’s better to wait until the ice has melted and then call a roofing company to come to help you solve the ice dam problem instead.
Get Your Roof Inspected
The solution to almost all of the potential problems that we mentioned above can be solved by getting a roof inspection. At Pinnacle, we provide roof inspections for homeowners and business owners who want to see their roofs in tip-top shape, and want to keep them that way for another 10-20 years!
Roof maintenance equals a safer and more secure building structure in the long run, so there’s no reason to skip an inspection! We are here to help!
Always Use a Quality Roofing Team to Perform Repairs and Maintenance
If you find that there are repairs required to update your roof and make it more secure, you can rely on Pinnacle Roofing as the premiere roofing business in the MidSouth! We can manage new roof installations, repairs, inspections, and more! Give us a call today to let us help you with your roofing needs.