The Palm Beach Roofers Guide To Prepare Home For Winter
Besides being the first protection that a house has, JJ Quality Builders a good roof also helps to regulate the temperature of a house. The cost that is involved in installing and using a heating system in a house can be minimized in the presence of a good roof. During hide tide, a well-installed roof should be able to retain heat to keep the house warm. If the weather is hot, the roof helps to exhume heat and exchange it for cold air.
As part of roof maintenance, a homeowner should prepare his or her roof for all the four seasons. Truthfully, during the summer season, the roof doesn’t need much maintenance, unlike the winter and autumn.
The winter season is the most turbulent season amongst the four seasons. If a roof is ready for the winter season, the impact of tornadoes, heavy wind storms, hurricanes, heavy rainfall, and so on, will be reduced. Remember that roof leaks are formed and noticed during winter. Therefore, every homeowner is advised to carry out some preparations before the temperature starts dropping, frosts start building, and the snow starts falling.
This article will highlight four actions that homeowners should take to prepare their roofs for winter.
Four things to do to get your roof ready for winter
- Check shingles and roof flashings: if your roof shingles and flashings are missing or broken, then your roof is probably leaking – and it might be a long and cold winter if you don’t repair it. First of all, roof shingles are those flat and rectangular materials that prevent rain or melted snow from seeping into a house. While roof flashings are thin materials that are placed on joints of roofing features, to prevent rain and melted snow from entering the house through those joints. Although shingles and roof flashings have the common goal of preventing water from entering the house, they are placed at different points in a roof. Before winter starts, homeowners are advised to go up to their roofs – if they can, or call a roofing contractor to check if their roof shingles and flashings are damaged.
- Clear your gutter: every roof is built with a gutter. This gutter transports water from the roof’s valley to the main drainage system of the house. During autumn, debris and fallen leaves may enter and block the roof’s gutter. If this debris isn’t cleared before winter, then rainwater and melted snow will not be properly disposed of into the house’s main drainage system. The roof will then get waterlogged and may lead to a leak or mold on the roof. Therefore, before winter, homeowners are advised to climb up to their roofs and thoroughly clean their gutters. If, however, your roof has gutter screens, then you don’t need to clear your roof. Screen gutters are like guards that are placed on gutters to prevent debris and leaves from falling into them.
- Cut down tree branches that are close to the roof: people grow trees near a house because of a lot of reasons. It may be for ornamental purposes, it may be for the trees to serve as a shady spot, or it may be as a source of food. Whatever is your reason for having a tree near your house, you are advised not to have those trees too close to your house. If a massive wind storm or tornado hits, and a tree is so close to your house that its branches can touch your roof or windows, then those branches will be the first instrument that may cause damage to your property. Also, the leaves that fall off those trees during winter may block your roof’s gutter. Therefore, you are advised to cut down the branches of trees that are too close to your house before winter. You may also call an arborist to advise you on which branch to cut down and how to cut it down.
- Check the age of your roof: no matter the maintenance and repair a homeowner carries out on his/her old roof, it will not rejuvenate the lifespan of that roof. An old roof is a weak roof, and a weak roof will likely not be strong enough to hold through winter. Therefore, if your roof is old, you should probably start thinking about how to replace it before winter starts. You can know that your roof is old if it is about to clock 20, or it starts looking worn out.
In conclusion, most of the steps mentioned above are DO It Yourself (DIY) actions. Try to carry them out before winter sets in.
