Winterize Your Roof By Joseph Feross At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

Even with a Dallas or Forth Worth roof, you’ll need to worry about snow and ice, as well as the changing temperatures. It doesn’t snow only in the northern states like Michigan and Wisconsin, Texas gets snow and ice as well. During the winter, temperatures fluctuate between above and below freezing temperatures. This is no good for the roofing material such as shingles and flashings because they will compress and expand with the changing temperature. This can cause the materials to become lose, warped, or even cracked.

As mentioned, snow and ice are also issues for roofs. Ice can weigh down gutters, causing them to break and fall off. Melting snow can create ice dams (buildup of ice and water that can work its way under roofing material) and cause stains, leaks, and even structural damage. To prevent damage against the winter temperatures and elements, there are some things you can do to winterize your house. Here are a few of the things you can do.

The first thing you’re going to want to protect your roof against are ice dams. They cause the most damage, and are the most work to prepare for. Ice dams are formed when snow on the roof is melted by warmth escaping from the attic, the melting snow trickles down the roof where it hits a cold spot and refreezes. This new ice builds up as more water is added to it, and it gets in under shingles and nails and warps the material underneath.

There are two things you can do to protect against this. The first in making sure your attic is well insulated. This keeps the warmth in the attic so the snow outside doesn’t melt prematurely to begin the ice dam cycle. The other is ventilating your attic. You can do this by adding continuous soffit vents and continuous ridge vents. Ridge vents causes the warm air inside the attic to be directed outward from the top of the attic and away from the house so that the snow isn’t melted by it. Soffit vents pull cool air in through the bottom of the attic so cold spots are less likely to be formed. Installing this kind of ventilation system can be tricky and left to the professionals. Make sure to have your local Dallas or Fort Worth roofing repair company come out to do this instillation.

You might be thinking about installing heat tape to your roof. While this is a viable solution to preventing ice and snow build-up on your roof, you should be cautious in using and installing it (heat tape has been known to heat up to such a degree that it can and has caused house fires). Make sure you buy a high quality product, in this case you really will get what you pay for. Be careful installing it so that you don’t puncture your roofing material.

When clearing snow from your roof, use a shovel. Don’t use a snow blower as the blades can damage the shingles. And never use an ice pick to get rid of ice!

And lastly, take care of your gutters. Use a gutter guard to prevent ice from building up inside, as the access weight could break it.

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