The roof is one of the most important parts of your home. However, it’s often out of sight, out of mind, so you probably don’t spend much time thinking about it. Roofs are designed to handle quite a bit, but for a year, it can sustain damage that can lead to leaks, mold, an increase in energy usage, not to mention costly repairs if the damage is left to fester. Instead, you need to make roof maintenance a part of your annual home care routine. By performing a basic maintenance check of your roof for the New Year, you will extend the life of your roof while also cutting down on those sudden, costly repairs. So, when it comes to maintaining a roof, here is an optimal checklist you need to follow.
Remove Debris From Your Roof
Depending on the tree situation around your property, this might be an especially brief step, or it might take you some time. Heavy tree cover can lead to falling branches and other debris building up on your roof. Other times it might require you to take a regular household broom to sweep away a few twigs and plants. Whatever the situation, you need to go over your roof and remove debris. Excess weight on your roof is never ideal, and plantlife left on your roof can begin to take on water and even sprout new vegetation. It’s best to avoid these problems with an annual cleaning.
Inspect Inside The House
Inspecting your roof doesn’t only take place outside the home. It needs to take place on the interior of the house as well. Inside the attic, you’ll want to look for wet spots as well as any cracks of lighting from the exterior. If your house was built in the last few years, chances are you won’t have external light finding its way inside of your home, but it’s still important to look. The best way to spot outside lights is to turn the lights off in the attic during the day and look around the edges and corners where the roof connects with the walls.
Wet spots are more common. You’ll want to carefully look over the entire ceiling in the attic. Wet spots will be a darker color most of the time, although you might also see mold. If you can’t see anything but the attic has a musty smell, that’s another sign of possible water leaking, which you’ll want to have a professional address.
Inspect Your Roof
While removing debris from your roof, you should perform a basic inspection. Look for missing shingles, damaged or cracked shingles, flashing that’s peeling away, or any missing granules. If you spot any of this, you’ll need to have the roof repaired. These issues are generally easy to spot, so you don’t need to be a roofing professional to spot missing or damaged shingles.
Clean Out the Gutters
This is something you should realistically be doing twice a year. Clogged gutters lead to all kinds of problems, from water flowing back up into the underside of your roof to heavy gutters pulling down on your roof, not to mention the kind of pests thick gutter buildup tends to attract as well. Thankfully, as long as you clean out your gutters twice a year, you’ll avoid heavy buildups, and it will be easier to do (instead of waiting and cleaning out the gutters every few years, in which case the buildup can be extreme).
While cleaning out the gutters, you’ll have an excellent opportunity to inspect this area of the roof. You can search for soft shingles and any kind of cracks or water damage. The best time to clean your gutters is after all the leaves have fallen from trees around your home, and then in early spring. However, as long as you clean out the gutters twice a year, you’ll be good to go.
Trim Overhead Trees
Sometimes, roof maintenance has nothing to do with the roof itself. This is the case when it comes to trimming away any branches close to your roof. Close branches can lead to damage during a storm, not to mention it makes it easier for pests to jump from the tree to your roof. These branches are a problem just waiting to happen. If the branches are small, you may be able to trim them away on your own. However, for thicker, larger branches, you’ll be better off calling in a professional tree trimmer to handle this.
Professional Roof Inspection
You can perform some basic roofing inspections on your own. It’s not too difficult to find missing shingles or damaged flashing. However, searching for soft shingles or water spots isn’t as easy to identify. With a professional roof inspection, you’ll be able to pinpoint these issues and have the necessary repairs performed. It’s far easier to repair a minor water spot now than it is to avoid a professional roof inspection and let the water spot fester into more damage, both externally and internally.
Schedule Your Roof Inspection Today
Having your roof inspected annually by a trained professional is an important step in your maintenance checklist. There are some aspects of roof inspection you simply can’t do on your own, and a professional will know what to look for and how to find early signs of damage. Performing basic repairs early on will help you avoid those costly repairs later down the line, not to mention, and you will be able to extend the life of your roof, which can potentially save you thousands of dollars.
There’s never a better time to start with your home maintenance routine, including roof maintenance. So, give the staff here at Charlotte Roofing Specialists a call and schedule your roof inspection today. However old your house is, or whenever your last inspection was performed, the team at Charlotte Roofing Specialists is here to help.
