Your home's roof is an important and essential protection barrier for your home, keeping rain, wind, and debris from entering your home. But in order to keep your roof in its top form, you need to make sure to take care of it and maintain it all year long. Here are some tips to keep your asphalt or metal roof maintained in a northern climate.
Metal Roofing
Metal roofing materials are becoming more popular in many climates, and when you select metal for your roofing material, you are in for a great number of benefits. Metal is a long-lasting material that will hold up for decades, and it looks great on your home. Metal is a great material in the winter with northern climates because it can absorb heat from the sun's radiation, and its smooth nature will help encourage any snow and ice to easily slide from its surface. This can prevent ice dams and their damaging side effects.
However, make sure that your home's roof is free of debris that can fall from nearby trees and other vegetation. Safely sweep off and remove any debris from windstorms to keep your metal roof protected. Also keep nearby trees trimmed so their branches don't scratch or brush against your roof's surface. When twigs and branches cause scratching damage to your roof, the scratches can cause the roof to rust and corrode.
You can arrange to have your roof cleaned of excessive debris to keep it protected, and you should also clean your gutters at the same time. Your roof's gutters are also an important part of your roof's entire drainage system, so keep them cleared on a regular basis.
Asphalt Shingles
Asphalt is another popular roofing material because of its cost and its appearance. Asphalt shingles can last on average only about 20 years, so plan to have asphalt shingles replaced after a couple decades.
In the winter your asphalt shingles are exposed to snow and ice, which is fine as long as you don't let the ice build up excessively on the edges of your roof. When the snow melts on your roof, it will refreeze along your roof's edge into a layer of ice called an ice dam. This ice dam can form under and between your shingles, essentially lifting them from the roofing deck.
Take care of your asphalt shingles by installing ice dam prevention measures, such as heating tape at the roof's edges, and by installing adequate ventilation for the space within your attic. Then, make sure your home's attic is insulated enough to keep your home's heat inside your home.
Contact roofing contractors in your area to learn more.
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31 March 2021
When you want to make your home shine, there are some very important basic components you should be mindful of. For starters, you should evaluate the exterior of your home to determine whether or not the siding or exterior cladding needs to be replaced. Next, you should check to see if the roofing needs to be replaced, since it really can make a powerful difference. Roofing can take up a great deal of the visual space from the outside, so think carefully about how yours looks. Pay attention to issues like aged, curling shingles or roofing that contains dips or divots. Check out this blog for great tips about roofing.