Five Steps for a Well-Maintained Roof

Your roof keeps the rain, wind and cold out; it helps to maintain the building’s structural integrity; and, of course, it helps your home look attractive. But it can’t do any of this unless you make sure it stays in good shape.

Here are five things you can do to keep it that way.

1. Make Regular Visual Checks

Besides periodic close-up checks, you can keep your eyes open all the time. From outside, you may be able to see from below any broken tiles or flashing, or any sign of the roof is sagging.

You can also keep a look-out indoors, especially checking for any damp patches on ceilings after rain. It can also be useful to go up into the loft or attic and look for daylight through the roof, showing a hole.

2. Check Your Guttering

The guttering and downpipes can be prevented from draining the water off your roof if they’re clogged up with leaves and debris, so they should be cleared out at least twice a year. If you have the correct equipment and plenty of experience of working at height, you could do this yourself, but it’s generally better to have it done professionally.

3. Check Your Loft Space

Besides looking for holes, it’s also important to check your loft space for signs of rot, mould or mildew on the timbers or underside of the roof. This can be prevented by making sure space is well ventilated and also keeping your loft space fully insulated.

4. Keep Your Roof Clean

Whether you have a slate, tiled or felt roof, it’s easy for moss and mould to grow over it and, besides being unsightly, they can damage the materials. Look out for this in your visual checks, and get the growth cleaned off as soon as possible.

5. Close-Up Checks

While visual checks from a distance can be done frequently and casually, you also need to get up to the roof and check from close up at least once a year, and any time after a storm. What you’re looking for here, among other things, is broken tiles or torn membrane, damaged flashing, fascias and soffits, broken brickwork on the chimneys and sagging roof ridges.

An experienced DIYer can make these checks, but any repair work will need to be done by professional roofers. It may be worth your while to have the checks made professionally, too, so that any repairs can be undertaken straight away.

If you want to know more about maintaining your roof, feel free to give us a call.