Great Homeowner Roofing Tips

Understanding Roofing as a Homeowner

Choosing, installing, and maintaining a new roof for your home may only be a little more interesting than watching paint dry, but if you own a home, you will someday need to repair and maintain your roof or even build a new one. Even sooner, though, and at regular intervals, you should inspect your roof. Here are a few roofing tips on when to have a roofing company carry out a repair or install a new roof. The advice might even make taking care of your roof less difficult and safer and long-term ownership even more carefree and less expensive.

When It’s Time for a New Roof

Before anything else, when choosing whether you should have your roofing contractor install an entirely new roof or even repair some of the roof, you should check the local building codes. States, counties, cities, towns, and even neighborhoods in many areas have regulations addressing roofs. You do not want to run afoul of them.

In a nutshell, your roof is not a single component, but rather a system of many materials and devices. The failure and/or neglect of any one item will lead to a leaking roof, and the damage, discomfort, monetary cost, and even physical trauma that a leaking roof can entail. Roof failures can lead to a range of harm varying from annoying dripping to life-threatening events, including collapsed ceilings and walls. Put another way, if you do not have a good working roof, you do not have a home, or at least not a good one. The cost of undoing what you’ve already done is not only expensive, it takes an emotional toll.

Roofing that costs less will probably not last as long as roofing that is more expensive. But spending money on expensive roofing materials won’t keep you dry if the roof does not include all the bits and pieces that make a roof work. Therein lies the reason for and the importance of periodic maintenance. A roof is not just a single item nor is it a static one. A roof’s proper functioning depends on the performance of an assembly of materials and devices and their proper installation. Correct installation and maintenance of each one are absolutely necessary for a roof to do its job. A roof will leak and the house will get damaged if any of the parts that make up a roof are missing or not installed properly or become damaged, clogged, or otherwise dysfunctional.

Working Parts of Your Roofing

Proper flashing, intact underlayment, and clean, unobstructed gutters and drains are all part of a working roof. If gutters and/or drains get clogged from falling leaves or tree needles, flower petals, or debris of almost any kind, even for short periods of time, water will flow over the gutters, back up, and flow out of drain pipes and into and onto the home’s ceilings, and into walls and floors. If the flashing is not properly installed and maintained, rainwater can and will flow into and through shingles and shakes, and joints, and it can even collapse your ceiling, an event that unfortunately occurs too often.

Fortunately, and not accidentally, there are also those moments in life that are as enjoyable as they are because you know with justifiable certainty that you are safe and warm and dry — and will stay that way — even when rain, sleet, or snow is falling down with a vengeance on your roof.

Do regular inspections. Do the maintenance. Better yet have a bonded and licensed roofing contractor inspect your roof at intervals to make sure your roof is in proper working order. Please give us a call at 707-541-7663 or fill out our Contact Form for a free roofing evaluation and roofing quote.