When you’re thinking about what protects you and your family from the elements each year, what comes to mind? Obviously, probably your home in general – but getting into the specifics, we can thank our roofs for doing that job. They’re such an integral part of the most architecture that it’s hard to imagine buildings without them.
Throughout a calendar year, though, they take a lot of wear-and-tear damage. Depending on where you are and what kinds of weather you get, it could get a bit more serious than that. So, to help deal with some of those issues that come up along the way, it never hurts to have routine maintenance and inspections done on your roof.
Why Does this Matter?
Now, I know that roofs are not really the most interesting or amazing thing to read about – so, chances are, you are not here to learn about the history of roofing or something like that. Instead, let’s talk about why you should care about this in the first place. Seeing as the roof over our heads is one of the only things protecting us from snow, hail, rain, and more, well…it’s a good idea to keep it in the best shape that we can.
Now, how exactly that works will depend on the materials that yours is made of, which you can read more about here: https://www.forbes.com/home-improvement/roofing/types-of-roofing-materials/. Make sure that you know it before you call for a contractor since that can speed up the consultation process significantly.
For the most part, though, the main reason that you should care about something like routine roof maintenance is that over time, shingles and other components will get damaged. Maybe they’ll fall off, maybe worse will happen – honestly, it can end up being pretty severe and having a big impact on your daily life.
Why Get Routine Maintenance
Now, as you can probably tell based on what I’ve had to say thus far, there are a few reasons here. If you weren’t already aware, they have a lifespan of usually twenty to thirty years. You can push that to thirty or even forty if you keep it properly maintained, which is a pretty big deal. It saves you a lot of money seeing as full replacement jobs are a hefty cost.
So, giving it a longer life…why wouldn’t you want to, right? That is hardly the only reason, though. There’s also the simple fact that it keeps both you, your family, and your possessions safe from the external elements. That could be snow, rain, hail (like I mentioned above), or even something like a big storm. Without one, you’d be dealing with a lot of property damage.
Beyond that, though, it also helps with the insulation inside. Imagine how cold or hot you’d end up if you didn’t have a covering on your home. Next time that you’re holding off on getting roof maintenance, try thinking about that and the fact that you’d have a real hard time replacing all of your items if something were to happen.
Other Considerations
Those are the practical reasons. What else is there, then? Do we need more motivation? Well, something that a lot of us may not think about on a daily basis is the fact that our roofs play a significant role in the curb appeal of our homes. Even if you’re not looking to sell any time soon, curb appeal is still pretty important in most neighborhoods.
So, if you’ve got broken tiles or shingles, a bunch of algae growing on it, or tons of debris like leaves or sticks, it’s not the most attractive thing in the world. Routine maintenance can help to address those sorts of things too. Just something to think about, of course, seeing as I think the other stuff is probably a bit more important.
Imagine, for a moment, that a tree were to fall on your home and to break a portion of your roof. If you’ve been having that maintenance done, chances are that your bill following an emergency like that one won’t be as high as someone’s who hasn’t really been taking care of their roof. As someone who prefers to be prepared, that’s always a thought I consider as well.
My advice here, generally speaking, is not to wait until there’s an emergency. Start talking to a contractor now if you haven’t before to schedule some routine maintenance and inspections. You might find out that there’s a few little issues to be solved like a cracked shingle or some algae – and you’ll be real glad that you caught it early on. Otherwise, the small things can quickly evolve into huge ones, and you could end up with a big leak or hole in the ceiling that is costly and hard to handle.
