Whether your roof is under a crisp layer of snow or you’d simply rather stay inside and keep warm, the ‘out of sight, out of mind’ philosophy can take hold in autumn and winter. Your roof is left alone to do its thing for half the year, and you hope for the best come spring, when that roof returns into your mind for a quick once-over.
However, autumn and winter combined can be six months of seriously hard work for your roof, so it’s best to check that it’s in tip-top condition before you say goodbye to it until 2020. Here are the horrid ‘highlights’ your roof will face over the coming months.
Lots and lots of leaves
You could be forgiven for thinking that autumn isn’t a bad time to be a roof. After all, while summer is undoubtedly tough, with sweltering temperatures testing the integrity of your tiles, and winter is of course incredibly cold, the milder temperature in-between should be a doddle, shouldn’t it?
However, autumn is also a time of blustering gales, if admittedly perhaps not as harsh as those in spring. The autumn season also sees an enormous amount of debris carried across the wind. Leaves, moss and twigs can all swirl around and settle on your roof, leaving any slight damage already present exposed to soggy and potentially damaging material.
Months of moisture
A roof in full working condition shouldn’t be troubled by any weather thrown at it, even for a prolonged period of time. However, damaged tiles, faulty guttering, worn chimney pointing and every other thing that can go wrong can seriously struggle with autumn and winter. Weeks on end of rain and debris, followed by several months of frost and snow can really take its toll.
During autumn, you’re likely to notice if your roof is leaking straight away, as the temperature is not yet cold enough for cracks to become frozen. However, in winter, these cracks can be full of ice, which swells and shrinks during the course of a day and makes tiny imperfections turn gradually larger. The quality of insulation inside the home can also be an issue – if you spot that your roof has little to no ice on it, while others around your home do, it’s a clear sign you’re losing heat through the roof.
The sensible solution
Before winter hits, and maybe even before autumn becomes too chilly and breezy, see how your roof is coping with the weather it has seen so far this year. If you or a professional roofer spot damage that needs taking care of now, you’ll still have plenty of warmer, longer days for it to be taken care of, before weather threatens to stop play for the rest of the year.
Contractors like Findley Roofing & Building’s roofers in Washington and further afield in the North East offer a free roof health check to every homeowner, so you could even get six months of peace of mind for nothing before autumn officially kicks in!
