Your roof is a long-term investment and you’ll want to make that you keep on top of your roof maintenance. That being said, it is easy to make mistakes when it comes to trying to look after your own roof. If you have a new roof especially, caring for your roof should be a high priority on your long list of chores. Today, Powerdrive Roofing has 5 common mistakes that people make when it comes looking after to their roof.
Roof maintenance Error #1: Power Washing Your Roof
Keeping your roof clean is important when we talk about roof maintenance. Although it is important to keep your roof free of debris, lichen, moss, etc. because these things can cause damage and blockages to your roof and gutters. Unfortunately, High-Pressure Cleaning isn’t always the best way to accomplish that, even though this is a service offered by Powerdrive Roofing, it is not something that is recommended to be done on a regular basis, nor is it recommended to be done by someone that is unskilled or untrained. Water pressure that is too high can cause damage to your roof, especially terracotta roof tiles, it will remove a whole layer off. Terracotta roof tiles are already very porous and every time roof cleaning is undertaken and they are high pressure cleaned they become more vulnerable, this will accelerate the process of chemical delignification, you will also end up forcing water under the tiles if you do not hold the lance on the right angles causing damage to the structure and ceilings below, even possibly shorting out electrical sockets.
#2: Walking on Your Roof
Walking on your roof is one of the easiest ways to damage your roof. Powerdrive Roofing professionals know how to properly work on your roof without causing damage when performing roof maintenance, but an average person usually would not and that is understandable, we don’t expect our roofing contractors to know how to tig weld or wire up a stereo on a car, they know how to walk on a roof because it is a big part of the trade they have dedicated themselves to. Not only is climbing on your roof yourself dangerous but when looking for damage, you are likely to create other problems also, there is a bit of a knack to what we do, I know we make it look easy, but that comes from years of experience and dedication to our trade, stay safe, stay on the ground, let us take care of your roof.
#3: Moving Tiles to Check for Damage
When it comes to roof maintenance and looking for roof damage, it is always best to leave it to the guys at Powerdrive, or as the rest of Perth call us the roofing professionals. Getting on your roof attempting to identify damage yourself has the potential to make the problem worse. Lifting tiles to look for damage under them is one of the worst things you can do. You will generally not re seat them properly, then there is the nails that you are loosening, rather than lifting tiles or moving tiles, a Powerdrive Roofing Roof inspector is trained to trace back leaks, generally your leak will not be coming from directly above where the stain on your ceiling is, water will run from a higher point down, so rather than ripping half the roof up trying to trace it, Powerdrive guys will check first the most likely sources of water ingress, no need for roof tile removal at all usually.
#4: Not Cleaning Gutters
While it may not need to be a professional to gutters, it does take due diligence. One of the biggest most common mistakes people make regarding their roof is forgetting or neglecting to clean out the gutters regularly. Blocked gutters can lead to several roofing problems. All can be avoided by regularly cleaning out your gutters to prevent major roofing issues from affecting your home.
Roof Maintenance error #5: Not Cutting Back Trees
Whether you hire a professional arborist, or you do it yourself, it’s important to keep your trees cut back away from the roof and gutters. Falling branches and other leaves and debris can damage your roof and block your gutters. Gutter cleaning and tree trimming are two simple things you can do to protect your homes roof from potential damage. Preventing is much less costly than repairing damage to your roof of worse case a possible re-roof or roof replacement.
