Roofing Maintenance: Extending the Life of Your Roof and Home

To make the life of your roof last longer, you can implement measures of preventive maintenance such as:

• Free the surface of your roof from debris such as dirt and tree parts. Specially pay attention to areas that are likely to gather and trap them like behind pitch pans, pipes, HVAC units and other similar places.
• Make sure no part of the gutters is clogged. To avoid future clogging, you can have the gutters covered.
• Remove mold and mildew and apply zinc or lead control strips or other available products in the market that helps prevent them from growing back.
• If any shingle is missing or any area is found damaged, repair or replace them as soon as possible to prevent escalation of problems.
• Inspection and maintenance is best done before the rainy and snowy months.

Another big question that many homeowners are faced with regarding their roofing system is, “Do I need to have it replaced?” A poorly constructed or installed one voids you and your family of maximizing the full functionality of your roof and home. This may even cost you a good deal of your yearly budget. To know if it is already high time to be replacing your roof, be on the lookout for:

• Leakage after a downpour and watermarks. These may be indications of a run-down flashing or insufficient shingle underlayment.
• A good number of missing, curling, or cracked shingles. This is common to older constructions as the shingles might already be way past their product life.
• Discolored areas in walls and ceilings may be a sign that the underlying surface is badly damaged by leakage. When the structure beneath the roof is also damaged, the replacement may be more extensive.
• Paint blisters and peels in the interior or exterior. High humidity and too much moisture might be the problem.
• Unreasonably high energy bills. With this, your roofing system is among the first areas to look into. Poor ventilation makes your home’s heating and cooling system work harder than they should costing you more unnecessary energy.

Other than proper installation and construction, another factor that affects project success is product selection. Whether for a new construction or roofing system replacement, your choice of material is crucial in the longevity not only of your roof but of your whole house as well. So do your homework. Find the best system as well as company or professional that would best answer to your specific roofing needs.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 4th, 2009 at 9:45 am and is filed under Roofing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.