You want a safe home. You want a warm home. And of course, you want an energy-efficient home. Do you know what can help you achieve all of these goals? Your roof. That's right, if you call up a roofer and tell them about your desires, they can recommend some roofing repairs or materials to help you achieve those desires. They may recommend a metal roof, or they might recommend adding zinc strips to the roof peak. It all depends. One thing we can promise, though, is that learning more about roofing is a good idea. This blog is a good resource, but we recommend looking for other ones, too.
Check Your Shingle Roof For Damage Each Spring
When spring rolls around, people often go through a process of cleaning, renewing, and maintaining. You might clean out your closets, tidy up your landscaping, and declutter the garage, for example. There's another area where you should spend some time assessing the need for repairs: your roof. Winter weather is tough on roofs, but if you catch any damage early, you can have it repaired before summer arrives. Here are the most important types of roof damage to check for each spring.
Peeling shingles along the edge of the roof
While shingles can peel anywhere, what you're most likely to see in the spring is the shingles along the edges of the roof beginning to peel. They may look like one edge is lifted up, or you may notice that some of the sides of the shingles are loose. This occurs after ice dams form on the edge of the roof, which is common in snowy areas.
A roofer can seal those lifted shingles back down. They may put some adhesive under the loose edges. Or, if the shingles are badly bent and starting to crack, the roofers may just remove those shingles and put new ones in place.
Loose flashing and vents
In the winter, a tiny bit of water can find its way under the edge of some flashing or a metal vent. Then this water freezes, which causes it to expand and pry the edge of the metal up. Since flashing is meant to prevent leaks, lifted flashing cannot do its job well. And water can easily seep in around a loose vent. A roofer can replace or repair the damaged vent or flashing. None of the materials used to make these items cost much, but the labor will take a few hours.
Missing shingle granules
Granules are those rough little pebbles on the tops of shingles. Sometimes, if winter brings a lot of freeze-thaw cycles, this can cause the adhesive on the shingles to weaken and the granules to slough off. Shingles without all of their granules don't shed water as well as intact shingles. So, you may want to have a roofer replace the shingles that are the most damaged.
Sometimes, you'll check over your roof and notice that it fared really well and does not need any springtime repairs. Other times, you'll realize just how necessary repairs really are. Call a roofer if you notice any of the issues listed above.