The start of football season marks a change in the seasons. In the fall, you can enjoy the leaves crunching underfoot and the last days of warm weather before winter – but don’t forget about your roof! Winter is probably the last thing on your mind, but there’s work to be done to prepare your roof for the first freeze and the first snow. Before winter hits, you’ll want to take a few important steps to winterize your roof. Check out our list below: 5 Steps to Winterize Your Roof, to make sure your roof is ready for winter.
5 Steps to Winterize Your Roof
- Clean up outside. With all the leaves changing color and falling in autumn, you’ll want to be sure your roof is clean from all debris. In particular, you need to clean all gutters of leaves, twigs, and other debris so that any rainwater or melting snow can drain properly. It’s also important to trim back any branches that might hang over your roof. Once there’s ice on your roof, you won’t be able to clear any debris safely.
- Inspect & repair your roof. It’s much easier to deal with any problems on your roof before the weather gets cold than to worry about having your roof repaired in the middle of January. If you feel comfortable getting on top of your roof, you can check for most problems yourself. Look for torn or missing shingles, cracked caulking, or loose flashing. Any of these problems need to be taken care of before they turn into something bigger – shingles should be replaced, caulking removed and redone, and flashing secured back down. If the problems are too widespread or you don’t feel like you can fix them yourself, call Summit Roofing Solutions to help repair the damage before winter hits.
- Check your attic. When you’re going through the steps to winterize your roof, it can be easy to forget about the inside of your home. But your attic is the first interior place to check for problems due to its proximity to the roof. You’ll need to look for any obvious problems, like leaks or drafts, but you’ll also want to be sure that air is circulating properly. This is important not only for your roof but for the inside of your home as well.
- Look at your ceilings. Take a survey of the ceilings in your home and check for stains or leaks. Hopefully, if you’ve found one before, you’ve already investigated and repaired the source of the stain. If not, fall is definitely the time to take care of it before any leak worsens.
- Clean your chimney. With cold winter nights coming sooner than we’d all like, you know you’ll be using your fireplace and chimney this winter. If you have a wood-burning fireplace, you should have your chimney regularly inspected and cleaned, and what better time to do that than right before the season it gets the most use? Decrease the risk of fire to your roof and/or home with a clean chimney.
It’s easy to put off maintenance when the weather is beautiful, but winter is coming, and timing is key. Winterize too early, and your roof might collect more debris or have problems later in the fall that you won’t catch before winter. However, if you put off these steps for too long, you risk not being able to complete your prep work before the first snowfall. Once the last of the leaves are falling but the weather is still mild, follow our steps to winterize your roof to keep your family home warm and dry this winter. Need help? Contact Summit Roofing Solutions, LLC.
