In past blogs, Blue River Restoration has brought you fall tips to help make sure your home is ready for winter. Along with those tips, here are fall roof maintenance tips to help your roof be ready for winter. These tips can be done year-round for your roof.
Seasonal Fall Roof Maintenance, Protect Your Home From Trees
The first thing to do when it comes to fall roof maintenance is to make sure that no tree branch is within fifty feet of your home. If a tree and its limbs are even close to touching your roof, we recommend trimming those limbs to stay out of trouble. We’re talking insects, critters, even damage to your roof; keep tree limbs away from your home. As the leaves begin to fall around your home, you will see branches on your trees that are getting a little too close to your home. Trim those back so they do not danger your roofing later. If you can do this early on in the fall, you can also minimize the leaves that clog your guttering system. This could be done year round with spring and summer winds/storms.
Inspect Your Roof and Flashings When Conducting Fall Roof Maintenance
Get up on your roof, safely and with the correct personal protective equipment, look for cracks. Pay close attention to where your roof meets your chimney or any other rising or falling parts of your roof. These areas will not be covered with regular roof material but rather a smooth metal called flashings. Make sure there are no wrinkles in the flashings as they can eventually become cracks which lead to leaks.
Even though you could climb up on your roof and play fix it, man or woman, you probably want to get a trusted professional in there at some point. Just to make sure you did not miss something that is an issue. Sure it’s fun to do it yourself, but when it comes to your roof, you may want to be a little less adventurous.
Fall Roof Maintenance Should Include Cleaning Your Gutters
Clean your gutters; it is a good idea to go into winter with clean gutters. As the snow melts and runs off your roof, it follows the same path as rain, and therefore you want to bring as much of it off and away from your home as possible while it’s melting. The usual course of snow is that it melts when it warms up during the day and freezes up again as it cools down at night. If your gutters are not squeaky clean, the snowmelt will build up in there and drip over the sides; this will create icicles. These icicles are pretty to look at but present a major risk for tearing your gutters off your roof and even worse, falling and hurting someone. Gutter guards are extremely affordable, and they will greatly reduce the amount of time you spend cleaning out your gutters. These simple caps go over your guttering to prevent leaves from falling inside. Water is still able to get through thanks to small holes in the caps, but large debris will simply dry up and blow away. You won’t have much cleaning to do at all after that.
