3 New Year’s Resolutions for Your Roof

Let’s play a little mind-reading game. We’re going to guess that your answers to the following three questions are going to be, in order: none, never, nope.

Here we go:

• How many New Year’s resolutions have you kept for an entire year?
• Have you ever made a New Year’s resolution that involved your home’s roof.
• Will you make a New Year’s resolution to be kinder to your roof in 2016?

Today we’re going to show you a way to change the answers to all those questions this year. And that’s not even the biggest benefit. If you make a few simple resolutions to look after your roof, it can help you save lots of money in roof repairs and/or replacement.

• Become a Roof Inspector – Many roofing issues that don’t become apparent until you’ve sprung a leak could have been spotted long before you had a problem. By simply doing an occasional walk around your home to check your roof, you can spot signs of potential problems, including curled, broken or missing tiles. If you can safely use a ladder, you can get an even closer look. Also keep an eye out for discoloration or tiles that have lost some or all of their protective gravel coating.

• Go Out In the Rain – While you know that your roof, among other important roles, keeps water from entering your home, few homeowners have ever taken a look at their roof doing its job. If you go out when it’s raining and look for spots where water is not draining off the roof properly, you could save yourself from the rude surprise of a flooded basement.

• Trim Your Trees – Mature trees are a highly desirable feature for a home’s landscape. But if trees are too close to the house, overhanging branches can brush or bang into the roof in high winds or stormy weather. When they do, they can strip away the gravel from your asphalt tiles, or otherwise damage the tile and even your roof’s supporting structure. Trim any branches that look like they could come in contact with your roof.

If you really want to make a New Year’s resolution to help your roof, get a professional roofing company to do semi-annual inspections. Your roof will thank you for it by protecting your home for a long time.