The health of your roof ranks as one of the biggest factors in the overall value of your home. Your home can gain or lose value based on the condition of your roof. Most roofs will last about 25 to 50 years, depending on how well you maintain them. Let’s look at how to maintain your roof so that it will last for years.
Tip #1: Schedule Regular Maintenance
You must perform roof maintenance twice annually to keep it in the best condition. Most homeowners will perform maintenance once before the end of autumn and once at the start of spring. You can perform this maintenance yourself, but taking on the risk of going up on the roof isn’t worth it. Over 108 professional roofers died from roofing accidents in 2020, making it one of the most dangerous industries.
When you hire a company to perform the maintenance, you don’t need to worry about suffering an injury. We would especially recommend this choice for the elderly to keep from risking an injury.
#2: Inspect Your Roof After Serious Storms
You don’t need to inspect the roof after a minor storm, but you should always check for damage after severe storms. Luckily, you don’t need to grab the ladder and climb up on the roof to do that. You can check for loose shingles and bent or missing rain gutters from the ground. Along with inspecting the roof from the ground, check the attic for leaks. This is the most common place to encounter a leak, which makes it the most important and easiest place to check for one.
Doing inspections after severe storms have another advantage in that it allows you to claim the damage on your insurance policy. If you fail to claim the damage immediately, your insurance company can deny you coverage for it. Generally speaking, insurance companies will cover damage to homes from a bad storm. For minor damage, you may want to cover it yourself because it prevents the company from dropping you if you file a claim too many times or increase your premiums.
#3: Replace Damaged Roof Sealant
You can expect your roof sealant to last from 10 to 20 years before you need to reapply it. In most cases, you want to check it at about 10 years, but if the roofers coated it properly, it may last for 20 years. A sealant protects the roof from rain, snow, and heat. Just keep in mind that sealant by itself won’t stop a major leak, nor will it prevent one if you’re missing a shingle. You need to replace it before the home suffers damage. Request help from one of the Delaware roofers to assist you with this type of damage.
#4: Remove Moss from the Roof
When humid and wet weather combines, moss can start to grow in shady areas on the roof. Moss in small quantities poses no danger, but once it grows, it can trap rainwater and moisture that leads to your roof rotting. You don’t need to worry about it hurting your health, but it can drastically shorten the lifespan of your roof. You should call NJ roofers immediately when you see signs of moss. The constant moisture on the roof will lead to it rotting away faster.
They can start to grow underneath the shingles and push them up, which will bring the roof’s integrity into question. Once that happens, the wind can blow the shingles off the roof easier as well.
#5: Clean the Gutters Twice a Year
This isn’t a hard rule, and it depends on how frequently your gutters fill up with leaves and debris. Most of the time, they fill up with debris that requires cleaning twice a year. You need to clean the gutters because they serve as your first line of defense against damage to the other parts of the roof. When the water can’t leave the roof, it will pool there and begin to cause leaks, mold, and rot.
You may need to trim your tree branches to avoid damage to your roof’s structure. Eventually, the branches may fall on the roof causing damage.
#6: Evaluate Your Roof
You need to make a realistic evaluation of your roof every year to see where it stands. Look at its age, past issues, and repairs. Even if you had a new roof put in a year ago, you should still make occasional evaluations as part of your maintenance. New roofs can become equally as prone to cracks, rust, and molds. Beware of how changing seasons can cause problems due to fluctuating temperatures. When you start to see your roof deteriorating, it may make sense to hire a New Jersey roofing company to fix a small problem before it worsens.
Conclusion
In general, roofs don’t require much maintenance, but you do need to keep on top of potential problems before they can materialize into costly issues. The repair of roofs is not cheap, so you want to take action before it costs you thousands of dollars. If you’d like to speak to someone about your roof’s integrity, you should call RGB Construction. We have the experience to assist homeowners with rotting roofs, and we can evaluate a roof with our years of experience to determine how to proceed. Call us today at (856)264-9093.
