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Your roof is one of the most important assets on your house, and extending the life expectancy of your roof takes attention and maintenance just like it would with a car. While the point of a good roof is to not have to think about it, taking a small amount of time out of the year to ensure issues don’t compound can massively extend the life span of your roof and put money in your pocket by avoiding more roof replacements than necessary.
Maintenance
Simple roof maintenance can make a huge impact with little effort. Even a schedule as easy as once per year will pay huge dividends on preventing issues that can cause detrimental effects to your roof. Once or twice a year, we would recommend setting up a ladder and doing a quick look over the roof to make sure everything looks good and there are no issues up there that are hidden from street view. Things you should look for are missing shingles, uncaulked nail heads, raised or loose flashings, tree branches or other type of debris that may be stuck up there, and shingle grit that may have fallen into the gutters or other areas.
This is an inspection to address typically smaller issues so they can often be handled in a DIY scenario. Caulk any exposed nail heads, fix loose shingles, and remove any debris that is trapped up there. By nipping these issues in the bud you will massively extend the life of your roof.
Heat and Cold
Extreme heat and cold is actually one of the very top factors that will decrease the life expectancy of your roof, particularly sharp changes in temperature that swing from hot to cold and vice versa in the course of a day. The scientific concept that creates this issue is called Thermal Shock and it’s the same effect that happens when a wine glass cracks when taken out of the freezer and put in hot water. The sudden temperature change puts stress on the materials which causes it to break and fracture over time. Installing a good synthetic underlayment when your roof is being replaced can help improve breathability and allow better circulation, but by far the best way to mitigate the issue of large temperature swings to your roof is our next category: ventilation.
Ventilation
One of the absolute best things you can do to extend the life of your roof is to have a trusted roofing expert help you put together a ventilation plan for your attic and roof. There are many different techniques, products and strategies to achieve your ventilation goals. One of the most common ventilation methods are box vents which is a static ventilation method and literally look like metal boxes installed in the roof field.
While box vents are the most common because they are cheapest, there are better ventilation methods such as ridge vent and solar attic fans. We will get into the specifics in another article, but these methods do a better job of actively pulling hot air out of the attic and maximizing air flow over a standard box vent.
Intake ventilation and baffles to get the fresh air up into the attic are also important factors which we will delve into deeper in future articles. The important thing to emphasize here is that ventilation is one of the most important things you can do to not only extend the life of your roof but reduce your energy bills as well!
Hail/Storm Damage
On the other hand, one of the most detrimental factors your roof can encounter is a bad hail storm. Luckily the vast majority of homeowners will carry homeowners insurance for times such as these. The Texas Department of Insurance estimates that 95.9% of homeowners that hold a mortgage also have an insurance policy. We are in the business of working insurance claims every day, so we can absolutely walk you through the process of how to get the optimal result out of your insurance claim, what to do if you’re denied the first time and help file your resinspection, and provide knowledge every step of the way.
If a bad hail storm hits your house, there’s not much you can do besides work with a professional roofing company that you trust and let an expert help guide you through the process. If you find yourself in such a situation give us a call at 210-417-7728 and we’ll be happy to help!
Quality of Install
Lastly, a key factor on the longevity of the roof is the quality of the install when the roof was put on. This can range as far as the quality of materials used to the installation methods. Standing seam and tile roofs will last a lot longer than shingles, but even in asphalt shingles it’s important to pick a good quality manufacturer like Certainteed, Owen’s Corning and Malarkey. Do your research and make sure none of the products the contractor is proposing to use on your roof are lower quality. You can find many rankings of shingles online, but this is a good one with IKO and TAMKO being two of the lowest.
Also make sure that no corners are being cut. Drip edge needs to be replaced as is full coverage with synthetic underlayment underneath the shingles. Make sure that any special areas of concern such as chimneys and flashings are addressed and that there is a plan for any rotted decking as you don’t want to build on soft foundation!
You also want to make sure that the installation is top notch on the labor end, which can often be assessed by looking up reviews of the company you are going to choose to perform the work.
Conclusion
Getting the most life expectancy out of your roof is one of the best investments you can make on your home and there’s a lot of factors to consider. If you need a quote or simply advice on anything related to your roof feel free to call us at 210-417-7728 or email at [email protected] and we’d be happy to chat!
