Snowfall is beautiful to watch from your window, but not as fun to deal with when it piles on your roof. To make sure your winter season is filled with warm days and no large repair bills, take these precautions to prep your roof before the snow hits.
1. Check for Roof Damage
Heavy rainfall and winds can affect your roof during any season, but it’s especially important to make sure any damage is repaired before the snow. Broken shingles provide a way for a melted snow load on roof to leak into your home, making a place for mold and mildew to grow.
What’s more, if the structural integrity of your roof is otherwise damaged, heavy snow and ice can cause your ceiling to sag and can even cause your foundation to crack. To know how heavy the snow on your roof is, you can monitor it with technology. By getting small roof issues repaired early, you prevent drastic damages down the road.
2. Clear All Gutter Debris
If you have pine needles or leaves in your gutters, it may be time to clean them out. When snow collects on your roof, it falls into these troughs. It can melt and refreeze, filling your gutters with ice. That ice and water hold on to debris, making the troughs even heavier and possibly causing them to tear from your home. As well, if the cold persists for days or even months, that organic matter ends up rotting and smelling, making it even harder to bear, let alone clean.
3. Ensure Your Attic Is Well Ventilated
A poorly ventilated attic can easily lead to water damage from the snow. An uneven distribution of heat on the surface area of your roof can cause ice dams. These are blockages of ice that prevent water underneath and behind them from running off your roof. When heat collects at the top of the attic, only the bottom layer of ice in that spot on the roof is melted, and the top layer and sides force it to stay there.
Stagnant water on your roof usually finds a way inside, and that’s why ice dams are so dangerous. Because they occur in slippery conditions, it’s best to have them professionally removed with the right equipment to prevent injury. To avoid the cost of water damage and ice dam removal, make sure the heat in your attic is evenly distributed with proper ventilation before it gets icy.
Make your winters more enjoyable and safe by taking measures to prevent roof damage from snow and ice. During the other seasons, don’t neglect to repair minor roof damages, clean the gutters, and check attic ventilation. These relatively simple tasks can save you both money and headaches later on.
