Is there anything better than sitting in your home during a rainstorm or a snowstorm? You can watch the weather outside and feel the coziness of your warm, dry home protecting you.
Your roof plays a vital role in that warmth and dryness, and you can’t take it for granted. As durable as your roof may be, each one needs special care and roof maintenance. How do you know where to begin?
In this article, you’ll learn:
- Why roofing inspections and maintenance are so important
- What type of roofing maintenance you need
- How often you need roof inspections
- The first steps to take to get the inspections and maintenance you need
While there are plenty of variables involved, your risks from overlooking roof maintenance and your basic steps are the same for any roof. Here’s what you need to know.
Why Are Roofing Inspections and Maintenance Important?
The roof is something homeowners tend to install and forget about. As much time as you spend cleaning and maintaining the inside of your home, you can’t neglect your roof. Keeping up with consistent maintenance and inspections will benefit you in many ways.
Increasing Your Roof’s Lifespan
Your roof can be one of the most expensive parts of your home, so you want to ensure a roof replacement doesn’t need to happen before it’s necessary. In fact, the average cost for an asphalt roof in Canada is close to $5,000 and a metal roof can cost over $10,000 on average.
When you stay on top of maintaining your roof, you can prevent or minimize the damage that comes with wear and tear over time. Inspections can also help you find and fix small problems. This can keep them from turning into bigger problems that may require a full replacement too soon.
Preserving Your Warranty
Your roof will come with a warranty for a specific time period, depending on your contractor. As helpful as that is, neglecting your roofing maintenance could potentially void your warranty.
Many roof warranties stipulate that you must have inspections and maintenance every so often to keep your warranty. The manufacturer does this so they don’t have to pay for problems that come from a homeowner’s neglect.
On top of keeping to your warranty’s terms, roof inspections and maintenance will help you catch issues sooner. After all, if an issue arises before your warranty expires but you don’t find the issue until after the expiration date, you might be out of luck.
Minimizing Costs When Warranties Don’t Cover Issues
Each warranty is unique, but most warranties have limits on what they will and won’t cover. Warranties primarily repair manufacturing defects in the roof or problems with the installation.
When there is a problem that your warranty doesn’t fix, you want to find and repair it as soon as possible. Roof problems have a tendency to cause further damage if you don’t solve them promptly. That makes an especially large dent in your wallet if your warranty doesn’t cover the repairs so it’s all on your dime – and that’s something you’ll want to minimize!
Maintaining Your Curb Appeal
Every homeowner wants to protect their property value. Curb appeal is a great way to do that.
A well-maintained and clean roof makes your home look newer and more expensive. On top of that, your roof maintenance and repairs will have a direct effect on your property value. After all, buyers want to know they won’t have a $5,000 roof replacement on their hands two months after purchasing their home.
Remember that this has an impact on your entire neighborhood too. The more homes there are with clean roofs, the more desirable the neighborhood will be. Some homeowners’ associations even have rules about maintaining your roof.
Saving Money in the Long Run
Your home is a serious investment, and every dollar counts. If you want to protect your bank balance, you need to keep up with ongoing roof inspections and maintenance.
Let’s say your roof has a small leak. It’s so small that you don’t notice it without an inspection.
As you go about your life, that leak leads to hidden water damage. The water damage grows until it isn’t hidden anymore. By the time you find it, it’s rotted some of the studs and created mold issues in the whole house.
By skipping inspections, you’ve turned an easy patch job into a whole-house repair that could cost tens of thousands of dollars.
Finding Hidden Issues
Too many homeowners assume that if something is wrong with their roof, it will become obvious when it rains. That’s often not the case.
Your roof could have problems that aren’t visible or detectable without a full inspection. Those issues could be costing you hundreds in energy bills by lowering your home’s efficiency. They could even be causing more serious damage under the surface.
By keeping up with a regular inspection and maintenance schedule, you can find those problems and fix them sooner.
Protecting Your Peace of Mind
Your home is meant to be a safe haven for you and your family, not a source of anxiety. Maintaining your roof inspection schedule will make that more of a reality.
If you have your roof inspected often, you can rest assured knowing there’s nothing wrong with your roof because if there were, the inspector would’ve found it. You can also feel confident that you are doing everything in your power to prevent problems because you’re receiving ongoing maintenance.
This is only true if you find a quality roofing contractor you can trust, though. If you have doubts about your inspector’s abilities, you still won’t have the peace of mind you want.
Lowering Your Risk for Leaks and Defects
Roofing maintenance isn’t just about making sure the roof looks nice. It’s about preventing problems too.
For instance, some issues like algae can eat away at your roofing material. If you don’t maintain your roof, that can lead to energy inefficient and even serious leaks.
Maintaining your roof also lowers your risk for damage from storms. If your asphalt shingles are already loose and windstorm comes along, they’re more likely to rip away than they’d be if you had secured the loose shingles in advance.
Keeping Your Family Safe
When it comes to your home, money is far from the only thing that matters. Your first priority is protecting your family.
If you don’t maintain your roof, it’s more likely to develop growing problems that could lead to a cave-in. Your roof also needs to be well-maintained to lower the likelihood of dangerous storm damage and to limit the spread of potential fires.
Maintaining Your Roof’s Structural Integrity
There are many factors that go into your roof’s structural integrity. It has to have the right underlying support, the materials need to be high-quality, and it needs to be installed skillfully.
Your maintenance plays a part as well. Ongoing cleaning, maintenance, and inspections can protect your roof from damage like wood root and shingle decay. Keeping up your roof’s structural integrity safeguards both your family’s wellbeing and your financial health.
Providing Healthier Living for Your Family
A leaking roof presents more risks to your family than a potential collapse. Even a minor leak can lead to serious health issues.
When leaks go undetected or unrepaired, mold will grow. That mold can lead to a wide range of health problems, like breathing illnesses. If someone in the home is allergic to mold, they’ll feel the effects even more.
Ongoing roof maintenance and inspections can prevent, find, and resolve leaks before they become larger problems that put your family’s health at risk.
How Often Should You Get Your Roof Inspected?
Now that you know why it’s so critical to get roof inspections, you might wonder how often you need inspections.
It’s important to get your roof inspected at least once per year. For most homeowners, it’s best to get a roof inspection every fall. This allows you to get any repairs done before the harsh winter arrives so you aren’t scouring the web for “roof repairs near me” with a hold in your roof.
It’s also important to get a roof inspection any time you have a weather event that may have damaged your roof. In Canada, this usually includes hailstorms and any storm with high winds.
The Next Steps to Take for Your Roof Maintenance and Inspections
Now that you know why roof maintenance and inspections are so important, there’s no excuse not to get started. What is the first step you need to take?
Begin by calling our roofing specialists at T Simpson Roofing. We’ll get you started by scheduling a roof inspection. With this inspection, we’ll be able to identify your maintenance needs, develop a customized plan for you, and get you on a consistent schedule.
