Decorating and maintaining your house’s interiors is important, but what about the exterior?
When managing your house, you must ensure that every part, both inside and outside, is adequately maintained. Your home’s roof is one portion that may not look like it needs too much care, but in reality, the roof requires a lot of looking after. Roofing ranks 16th among all the construction industry markets in the US.
So, if you want some useful tips and tricks regarding extending your roof’s shelf life, this article will help you!
1. Clean your gutters
Keeping gutters clean and tidy is the first important thing that helps to extend the life of roof. No matter the season, your gutters will accumulate much dirt and debris. So to keep your roof shiny and long-lasting, you should clean the gutters occasionally.
If water or other small materials can’t flow smoothly from the gutters and away from your home, then it’ll soon become a big mess, especially in your ceiling. Roof decking rot that is caused by gutter problems can be easily prevented if you hire a professional cleaning company or even do the job yourself.
2. Inspect the shingles
After the extreme weather months, especially monsoon or winter, remember to inspect your shingles. Even if the season is pleasant, you must still get it checked every now and then. Besides wind and snow damaging the shingles, even the sun’s ultraviolet rays can also heavily bear down on your roofing materials.
When conducting your roof inspection, test the shingles a little and see that everything is fine. If you do spot problems, even mild ones, don’t hesitate to call a professional company to further inspect the issue.
3. Trim the trees
While large trees standing right next to your house can look lovely in pictures, they can pose threats in real life.
For example, if a big tree limb or branch gets knocked off during a bad storm, it can easily land on your roof and allow small animals like squirrels and critters to invade your house. Therefore, make it a point to trim the branches that are dangerously close to your roof. Do this every now and then, especially right before the monsoon.
You should also ensure that small shrubs and bushes are cleared away so that water can be easily drained from your gutters.
4. Keep an eye out for moss
Moss can look aesthetic on your roof but be warned; it can lead to long-term problems for your roof’s shelf life. If you allow it to grow without any restrictions, it can damage even the best kind of roof, be it asphalt, wood, or concrete. Since moss grows best between shingles, it can grow over time and be strong enough to lift them right off the roof.
Besides wind and snow damaging the shingles, even the sun’s ultraviolet rays can also heavily bear down on your roofing materials.
5. Clear snow from the roof
After the winter is over, remember to clear every bit of snow from your roof. If it keeps building up on your roof, it can weigh down heavily on the shingles and even cause the entire roof to collapse. Moreover, once summer starts and the snow melts, the water will leak through and damage the material that your roof is made of.
To remove snow from the roof, take a snow rake and scrape away whatever bit of snow you can find.
If you cannot do it yourself, you can ask a family member to help you out. But first, inspect every part of the roof to ensure all the snow has been scraped.
6. Insulate and ventilate the roof
This might be surprising to hear, but roofs also require adequate insulation and ventilation. If enough air goes in and out of the roof shingles, you won’t have to worry about moss or fungus growing in damp places and rotting your house.
However, you should monitor your attic or upper bedrooms carefully to ensure your roof gets proper ventilation and insulation.
In warmer climates, the warm air from the attic can rise and cause the roof to sweat, resulting in long-term damage. So install proper vents in strategic locations on the roof.
Over to you…
Even though maintaining your roof can seem like a tough task, it doesn’t have to be that difficult if you follow these simple tips and tricks!
