Archive for March, 2021

1) Your roof is discolored

The sun and oth­er weath­er ele­ments, such as rain, snow, and sleet, can take a toll on your roof’s appear­ance. The col­or change could indi­cate dete­ri­o­ra­tion of your roof, not to men­tion it detracts from your home­’s curb appeal. If you plan to sell your home short­ly, it’s worth not­ing that a com­pro­mised roof can com­pli­cate a hous­ing sale in a hur­ry. The dis­col­oration is unat­trac­tive, and new home buy­ers are sure to notice.

2) Neighbors are getting new roofs

Neigh­bor­hoods often pop up at near the same time as part of a larg­er devel­op­ment project. As your neigh­bors begin replac­ing their roofs, you may find that yours is on a sim­i­lar sched­ule. If this case, take a look at the oth­er signs on this list to see if your roof is try­ing to tell you that it’s time to replace.

3) Roof age

Accord­ing to the Nation­al Asso­ci­a­tion of Home Builders (NAHB), you can expect shingle/composition roofs to last about 20 years, depend­ing on cli­mate, main­te­nance, and shin­gle type. Thick­er “archi­tec­tur­al” shin­gles will offer more dura­bil­i­ty than three-tab shin­gles. Some mate­ri­als have a longer lifes­pan than oth­ers. The clos­er your roof gets to its end of life, the more prob­lems you’ll begin to see crop­ping up. Keep in mind that roof dam­age only gets worse with time.

4) Shingles are buckling or curling

Shin­gles may begin to buck­le or curl due to heat and mois­ture over the lifes­pan of the roof. Harsh weath­er can degrade the longevi­ty of the shin­gles. If you notice shin­gles stick­ing up, your roof is on its last legs.

5) Missing shingles

Severe weath­er can also rip shin­gles off alto­geth­er, leav­ing your roof exposed to water dam­age. As water pen­e­trates the lay­ers below, your roof is then vul­ner­a­ble to “roof rot.”

6) Roof rot

Roof rot pos­es a sig­nif­i­cant risk to your roof as it must hold its entire weight. In the worst-case sce­nario, this can even lead to a col­lapse. The longer water can get into the wood, the more the rot will spread, increas­ing the urgency of fix­ing it.

Signs of roof rot:

• Torn flash­ing
• Water dam­age on the ceilin
• Mold in the attic
• Growth of algae or moss
• Sunken roof deck

7) Shingle granules in gutter

As the weath­er impacts your roof, ero­sion can cause gran­ules to trick­le down into your gut­ters. Over time, this can even lead to gut­ter blockages—the more gran­ules that fall off your shin­gles, the less pro­tec­tion the shin­gles offer.

8) Daylight visible through roof boards

Day­light should come through your win­dows, not through your roof. If sun­light can get in, so can water and ani­mals. We would be more than hap­py to install a sky­light or sun tun­nel if you want nat­ur­al light ema­nat­ing from above.

9) Damaged flashing

Flash­ing and under­lay­ment serve to keep water from get­ting under­neath your shin­gles. Be on the look­out for rust­ed or miss­ing flash­ing around your roof’s chim­neys, vent pipes, and the val­ley between roof parts.

Conclusion

The num­ber of prob­lems you can encounter with your roof is numer­ous. Main­tain­ing your roof is crit­i­cal to extend­ing its last­ing­ness. Keep these fac­tors in mind to pre­vent a lot of cost­ly headaches lat­er on.

If you find that one or more of these signs are evi­dent on your roof, give us a call at 703–550-0055 to have one of our repair tech­ni­cians or esti­ma­tors see what we can do to help you with the deci­sion-mak­ing process.