6 Easy Roof Maintenance Tips to Make It Last

It's understandable how hard it is to take time while working at home or attending to an office job to maintain the literal roof over your head. However, you've got to do it or else it's even more expensive to fix with a contractor and whatnot.

So how should you make sure that your roof is always in good shape even though it's usually mostly out of sight and out of mind? Follow the tips below to find out!

1. Trim the Branches of Nearby Trees ASAP

If you don't want to regularly clean your roof with a rake, broom, or leaf blower in order to get rid of wayward leaves, make sure the branches of nearby trees are trimmed. Hire someone to trim them for you or do it yourself with a handsaw or chainsaw.

This preventative maintenance tip will also keep you from needing assistance from a local roof replacement contractor to replace a degraded roof. Yes, even leaves and overflowing ducts can do a number on the support beams of your tiled or tin roof, for your information.

2. Clean Your Roof of Trash and Debris Regularly

Even after trimming the branches of nearby trees, you'll still need to get rid of leaves from the trees blown by far-off trees from the neighborhood, among other airborne garbage that flies or floats around. You should specifically watch out for cat or rat feces and urine.

The waste products of strays and pests will force you to get a roof replacement contractor on speed dial or as a regular smartphone contact if you let them accumulate. They can degrade and compromise your roof to the point of outright structural damage, whether it's made of stone or metal.

3. Proper Ventilation Will Do Wonders for Your Roof

Did you know that properly ventilating your roof can make all the difference when it comes to its longevity? It's true. Your roof needs space or holes for it to breathe. Or else it will build pressure. Trapped moisture and heat can degrade its mortar, metal, and plaster foundations from within.

Like water trapped on the roof of your car, the heat and moisture can also wreak havoc over your tiled or metal tin roof. Fix all this by installing quality insulation that helps your roof function against the elements better. Also give it a nice fresh paint job whenever it needs one.

4. Check the Integrity of Your Gutters as well

Gutters play a crucial role when it comes to keeping your roof and home protected and safe. It drains the water from rainfall or melting snow to a safe place, which is your drainage system, diverting all that water and debris away from your roof and helping clean it at the same time.

Roof maintenance naturally means gutter maintenance as well. Your contractor or you yourself can regularly check the gutters to ensure they're in tiptop shape so that they won't end up clogging later on and costing you even more money to fix down the line.

5. Regularly Treat the Roof for Algae and Moss

It's detrimental to let algae and moss grow on your roof. You see it on ancient ruins all the time. They can crumble in an instant in the event of an earthquake but they can also crumble over time with the presence of these plants on the surface of clay tile or tin roofs. They're also quite unsightly to boot.

You can buy algae and moss sprays or chemical cleaners that work wonders in removing them. You can also hire a power washer to wash your roof or patio for you, since high-pressure water can do wonders in removing these sticky pernicious plants off of your roof.

6. Inspect the Roof and Attic After Every Storm

While it's tempting to rest easy after a storm since going through a storm is stressful enough, it cannot be stressed enough that you need to inspect your attic and your roof after the storm has passed. You need to take into account any damage done.

Have any water damage fixed and dealt with early on instead of waiting for the next storm to cave your roof in or flood your attic up, leading to a much bigger and more expensive mess when all is said and done!

Final Things to Consider

Roof maintenance is easier than you think. You can have someone look at it with your ladder or their own ladder to do minor things like clean up the falling leaves and garbage in the gutter or sweep up the tiles of dirt. They can also be responsible for weatherproofing or fixing the roof.