Your Home is Subject to Roof Damage Year-Round: Here’s What You Can Do
Your Home is Subject to Roof Damage Year Round Heres What You Can Do. All the four seasons summer, winter, spring, and fall bring their own different set of challenges and issues for the home and roof. Therefore we have compiled a proper guide to show you how to protect your roof regardless of the season. You have invested a good amount of money in your roof, so let’s make sure it stays perfect and cover your family for years.
Winter
If you are living in the Northeast or Midwest of the USA, then you would have experienced all the snow, ice, and cold temperatures. The residents of these areas are no strangers to severe winter weather.
However, it comes as no surprise that the winter weather can lead to serious roof damage especially the snow on the roof. However, you can protect your home from all the problems, such as ice damming, attic condensation, heavy snow, and ice.
Ice Damming
One of the greatest threats to the roof and your house is the damming of ice on the roof. The damming occurs when the heat from your home and the sun melts the snow, and that melted ice goes to the edges of your roof and freezes again causes a barrier for further water to come. The water can back up and can sneak into the shingles through the cracks and it can freeze again and can expand which will cause more trouble for your roof.
What can you do?
A properly vented roof is the best answer to the problem of ice damming. Exhaust vents, like ridge vents, allow warm, moist air to escape your attic while intake vents enable cool air to enter.
Attic Condensation
A properly vented roof can also protect against roof damage. When snow, ice, or water build-up on your roof, the warm air rising through your house can hit that cold deck and in return, it will start causing moisture in your roof.
For this, you can make sure that your attic is properly vented which will let the warm air go outside the home easily while keeping the moisture out of your house.
Summer
The Sun is not your roof’s friend: Your roof is tough, but I am not immune to the immense heat of the sun and can get damaged through the UV rays. The red-hot summer sun can transfer the heat in your attic. According to some research, the temperature inside your attic would be 50 percent more than the temperature outdoors. If there is no proper ventilation then the hot air will stay inside and it will be heating the attic more and more, which might even cook the shingles. This heat can cause serious damage to the roof and shingles.
What can you do?
The same exhausts that you use in the winter season can save you in the summer season. The excess heat can escape through the ridge vents while cooler air enters through the edge vents, causing attic temperatures to go down. Moreover, the excess moisture that rises with the heat is also expelled and the roof is saved from it.
Spring and Fall
Winds, sheets of, rain and rolling thunder, are the characteristics of a good spring storm that can even shake you out of your bed. However, fall storms are not this severe, but they also pose a threat to the roof and the home as there could be falling off trees or other such incidents.
Wintry conditions can also sneak in during the fall season which creates a mixture of weather that gives anxiety to homeowners.
What can you do?
You need to have good quality material for your roof, flashing, fiberglass, underlayment, and drip edges which can help in keeping the water off the roof and out of your home. A superior sealant on the underside of the starter shingles keeps them in place at the edges of your roof and it can also bear the pressure of the winds.
If you have questions about your roof call Ridge Valley Exteriors today at 844-741-7663.
