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A roof acts as your house’s hat. It completes your home and protects you and your possessions from harmful elements. Thus, as a homeowner, roof maintenance is one of the significant issues you cannot ignore. Just like a poorly serviced car, a poorly maintained roof wears out over time and can damage your house. Neglected roofs cause leaking, which can cause costly damage to your home.
You should repair your roof whenever the damage occurs because repairing a roof is sometimes a matter of applying roofing cement to a visible crack. However, you must critically analyze the problem and assess the benefits of repairs versus replacing it with a new one. Contrary to most people’s opinion, roof repair is inexpensive and straightforward. As a homeowner, you can do a number of things to ensure your roof remains in good condition.
The following tips can help you accomplish roof maintenance and repairs
Detect problems
You should inspect your roof regularly to identify any potential issues that could arise. Splitting and water damage are some of the problems you can detect early enough when examining your roof. Ensure you fix a problem once you identify it.
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Do preventive maintenance
Do not wait until an issue becomes a significant problem for you to fix it. In most cases, ignoring a minor repair can lead to a worse situation that requires extensive work. Ensure you do preventive maintenance to avoid incurring huge costs for something you could have prevented with a minor repair.
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Install ventilation
Ventilation is one of the roofing aspects which many people overlook. Ventilation plays a critical role in regulating the temperatures between the attic and the roof and inhibits ice accumulation, especially during the cold season. Ensure your roof has enough vents that enable your roof to breathe and prevent moisture accumulation in the attic. Besides, install different types of vents, including ridge vents, soffit vents, gable vents, and roof vents, as each has its unique role in stabilizing temperature between your roof and attic.
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Fix leaks
Never underestimate the size of a leak because it can result in expensive and extensive damage to your home. When water oozes into drywall or plaster, it causes wood rotting and forms molds which can affect your health. Ensure you repair a hole immediately you notice a leak. However, you need to determine whether repairs will serve or whether you need to install a new roof. In many cases, repairing leaking roofs is easy, and even when your house needs a new one, some stop-gaps can help it serve you for a while.
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Inspect your shingle and shakes regularly
Check for missing, curling, cracking, or peeling shingles and shakes frequently. Dealing with a few missing shingles and shakes is something you can do on your own. Replace the damaged pieces by placing a new underlay and then fixing the new components in place. However, you need to identify the ones that match the style and color of the others. Ensure you match them accurately because people can quickly notice unmatched shingles.
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Hire a roofing expert to inspect your roof
Even though you have your roof maintenance checklist, there are some issues you will fail to notice when you do the inspection yourself. For this reason, hire a professional who will identify all the potential problems and provide you with important roof maintenance tips. They will also provide you with an estimate of how many years your roof is likely to last. A professional inspection will help you detect problems and address them before they worsen.
Roof repair never ends. While your roof is continuously exposed to harsh elements, it will always wear and tear more than other aspects of your home. Luckily, repairs are not always complicated, and the given tips will assist you in keeping your roof in good condition.
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