The roof is one of the most important parts of your home's building envelope. It is the roof's responsibility to protect your home's interior against water infiltration. If your roofing system fails, you could be facing costly water damage and the integrity of your home could be diminished.
It's important to know when you should contact a roofing contractor to come and evaluate your roof for damage. Identifying situations that require immediate attention will help you address roofing problems before they become too serious.
1. Damaged or Missing Shingles
You should conduct routine visual inspections of your roof to help you determine when it is in need of professional attention. Missing or damaged shingles create an inlet for water to seep into your home.
The easiest way to spot damaged shingles is to check for dark spots on your roof. These dark spots are areas where the coating of the granules of each shingle has started to slough off. Granules protect asphalt shingles from becoming brittle when exposed to the sun.
A roofing contractor will need to immediately replace any missing or damaged shingles to ensure that your roof stays watertight.
2. Damaged Flashing
If you look closely at your roof, you will see metal materials around the base of your chimney and any vent pipes extending out of your roof. This metal is referred to as flashing. Flashing is designed to give an added layer of protection against water infiltration through seams in your roof.
Roof seams are especially vulnerable to the elements. Wind or water can use roof seams as an entry point to get underneath your shingles and wreak havoc on the integrity of your roof.
If any of the flashing on your roof appears to be damaged, call a roofing contractor right away to make repairs.
3. Water Leaks
The most obvious sign that your roof is in trouble is the presence of water leaks. By the time that you can see water leaking into your home's interior, your roof decking has already become saturated.
It's essential that you have a roofing contractor come and remove the damaged section of decking and repair the source of the leak to prevent water damage from spreading across the surface of your roof.
The earlier you are able to spot water leaks and have them fixed, the less damage your home will sustain.
Knowing when to contact a roofing contractor can help you preserve the structural integrity of your roof and protect your home against significant water damage well into the future.
For more information about roofing repairs, go to sites like http://www.allamericanroofing.com.
