10 Maintenance Tips to Ensure a Longer Life of Roof
For homeowners who are responsible for the upkeep of their house, it important to keep roofing on top of their mind. Once installed, it is easy for someone to lose the sight on it and avoid one of the most important structures of your house, which help safeguard your home and also make your home energy efficient. Even though the best roofing systems and materials like asphalt are designed to last and offer solid protection over a longer term, NRCA (National Roofing Contractors Association) recommends that one should inspect the roof regularly for any damages, especially during winter and fall seasons.
The roof inspection can be done by yourself up to an extent to see if there are any visual troubles and on nothing any, it is important to seek the help of a roofing expert to evaluate and troubleshoot it. In this article, we will discuss some maintenance tips to make sure your roof stays strong and lasts long.
Roofing tips for proper maintenance
#1. Homebuyers’ consideration
An ideal time to do your roof inspection is before the closing date. It is important to a professional inspection of the roof before buying a new home. Ensuring this will help save a lot of time and money in terms of future costly repairs. Proper roofing inspection is also ideal when you are planning to sell your home.
# 2. Trim down the trees upsetting your roof
While it is important to maintain the surrounding landscape of your house and preserve nature, one shouldn’t also overlook the trouble caused by branches of trees leaning over to your roof. If you let them be so, it may ultimately scratch or gouge the roof components. So, it is good to trim back the tree trunks which are getting to close to the roof.
#3. Proper cleaning of gutters
It is important to keep the roof gutters free of any leaves, dirt, or debris. In addition to tree branches shedding leaves, other elements like dust and dirt may also clog the gutters overtime. This will lead to water getting clogged at these gutters and ultimately damaging the roof materials. Water may also get back into the attack and the living areas if this happens. So, to make sure that the drainage process is working properly, it is essential to clean the roof at least twice or thrice a year. Also, inspect the gutters for any sagging or damaged components of the drainage and repair them timely.
#4. Ensure proper ventilation through the roof
Make sure that your roof can breathe well. Without adequate ventilation, there are chances for moisture and heat to have an adverse impact on the roof, and the rafting and sheathing may rot. The roof materials will get buckled due to this effect, and the insulation also will lose its effectiveness. This may end up in damaging the roofing system and make it ineffective.
#5. Ensure insulation
The best way to ensure proper ventilation of the roof and adequate airflow through it is by proper insulation. As suggested by Colorado Springs Roofing Klaus expert, to safeguard your house from heating issues, it is essential to ensure a fine layer of gap-free insulation. This needed to be done on the attic floor and also a vapor retarder needs to be kept under insulation close to the ceiling to block moisture from getting into the attic. It is important to have appropriately vented space which allows the air to passage freely. For this, there should be a minimum 1-inch gap between the sheathing and insulation.
#6. Check attic
Apart from ensuring proper insulation to the attic, it is also essential to check for any types of water stains present on the attic, especially after a heavy rain or thunderstorm. It is essential to check for any weak shingles also which needed to be replaced on time to avoid any further damages.
#7. Protect from streaking
It is important to pay attention to the roof color too. There is a chance that the roof areas which are exposed to more shades may tend to catch mold, fungi, or algae over a longer period. If these are left unattended, it may eventually shorten the life of your roof material and also lead to leaks. To eradicate the risk of mold, you may try installing zinc strips alongside the roof ridge. Good quality strips are environmentally safe and also can offer long-term protection to your roof from moss, mold, fungi, mildew, and algae, etc.
#8. Check for shingle damages
For shingled roofs, it is essential for the homeowners to check for any damages of shingles from time to time. Being openly exposed to sun, rain, storm, and snow, shingles may tend to become dilapidated and may tear off ultimately. This will further cause the interior space of roof to catch water seepage and then become rot. So, it is advisable that homeowners must examine the roof coverings at least once in six months to ensure whether it is intact.
#9. Avoid DIY repairs if you are not an expert
Many try to attempt roof repairs by themselves. However, you should consider the fact that it is not only dangerous but also troublesome to your roof health if you aren’t an expert. So, it is always advisable to take the assistance of an authorized and insured roof repair service provider to evaluate your roofing problem and troubleshoot it. You should never try to walk over the roof or attempt repair of damaged or risky roofs.
#10. Get roofing inspection done from time to time
Even when you don’t have any plan to sell your house, it is advisable to do a roofing inspection by an expert at least once a year to ensure its well being. Finding out any roofing related problems at the first point and troubleshooting it will help extend the life of your roof, then waiting for a severe problem to show up and get treated. Once after the warranty period, you can try exploring the roof service options in your region and try to contact them to identify how much it will cost have an annual maintenance contract in terms of roof care.
Considering all the above fact, we can conclude that it’s highly important to remember your roofline along with other priorities. Having a keen consideration with yearly professional roof inspections and sticking to the above guidelines will help you protect your roofing structure for many years to come.
