It’s almost Christmas, and the entire family is planning to go on a long vacation away from home. Unfortunately, Denver CO has some of the snowiest and coldest winter seasons during Christmas. Leaving your home to fend off by itself against destructive weather and temperatures can leave its different parts -- especially your metal roofing -- at a poor or dilapidated state by the time you return. This is just one of the many reasons you should consider having metal roofing maintenance before leaving your home for the holidays. Here are three that can greatly help you achieve this.
Metal roofing maintenance involves providing maintenance for one of the most durable and tough roofs you can use for any Denver CO home. While manufacturers can claim their roofs can last for decades, it pays to look at the smallest nooks and crannies that can cause and evolve into the biggest roofing problems you might have in the future.
Sheffields Metal has a great step-by-step instruction on how to provide metal roofing maintenance before the holidays and snowstorms hit. Read more about it below:
Surface Maintenance to Perform on a Metal Roof
Surface maintenance consists of tasks that can be done without a thorough inspection of the roofing structure. There are many home or building owners who might want to do this maintenance on their own, but keep in mind that there are also professional maintenance services available for hire who are well trained in roof maintenance and safety. If you do decide to do the maintenance yourself, it is very important to consider your safety, especially on roofs with a steeper slope. Also, metal roofs are very slippery when wet, so keep this in mind if you plan to use any kind of liquid to clean your metal roof.
There are varying opinions on the frequency that maintenance should be performed, but it’s typically dependent on the environment the roof is in. For example, a home in a milder climate, such as Pennsylvania or Indiana, might only need to do surface-level maintenance once a year or every 18 months. But a building in a more extreme climate, such as Florida or Texas, or one that is in the shade underneath trees might need maintenance more than once per year depending upon the severity of conditions. Additionally, some warranties even list required maintenance in order to keep the warranty valid.
To ensure the continued performance of your metal roof, perform the following surface-level maintenance tasks on your roof.
CLEAN OFF DIRT, MILDEW, STAINS, AND OTHER ELEMENTS
Cleaning your metal roof and removing the dirt and other potentially harmful elements that could get stuck on the surface helps extend the life and the look of the roof. This may seem like an easy task, but there are strict processes of how to clean your metal roof safely and correctly so no harm is done to the panels, the building, or yourself.
CLEAN OUT GUTTERS AND DRAINS
Gutters and drains are popular spots for leaves, sticks, and other debris to build up and lead to clogging, which creates pooling water accumulation. This standing water can facilitate premature corrosion on nearly every type of metal roof material. Make sure you clean out your gutters and drains at least once per year to prevent this situation. (Continued)
Despite your best metal roofing maintenance efforts, some areas of your roof require more effort to maintain. In fact, these leak-prone areas are most likely to cause roof material devastation within a short amount of time. In this light, it pays to give extra attention to the following areas before you leave your property.
Exterior Pro Inc highlights how metal roofing screws or gaskets become one of the biggest problems most homeowners face. Despite the simplicity of their installation (any homeowner can screw in metal roofing gaskets), they can become misaligned and let leaks into the roof without warning -- especially when you’re out of town. Make sure to pay attention to the following:
Roofing screws are responsible for the majority of leaks on metal roofs. Metal roofing screws seal water out by compressing a rubber washer at the base of the screw head. When the screw is driven into the metal roofing panel the rubber washer forms a “ gasket” between the roofing panel and the screw head. It sounds simple enough but several things can go wrong like under driving screws, over driving screws, driving screws at the wrong angle and screws that missed the framing member.
Over driven screws: In an attempt to ensure a tight seal between the metal roofing and the screw head many roofing companies will overdrive the screw. The unneeded torch breaks the rubber washer and tends to spin it out to the side. Under driven screws: These are a result of not enough torch on the screw to properly seat the rubber washer to the metal roofing panel. The rubber washer is never compressed and no gasket is formed.
Screws driven at the wrong angle: These don't allow the rubber washer to sit flat on the metal roofing. Part of the screw is sealed but part is not sealed.
Screws that have missed the metal strut or wood framing below: These have nothing to seal against. These can be hard leaks to find as many times the screw is their but without touching it you wouldn't know that it didn't hit anything and didn't seal. (Continued)
Metal roofing maintenance is a simple yet heavily detail-oriented process that requires a keen and experienced team of professional roofers in Denver CO to handle efficiently. This is mostly important; leaving your home for the holidays, you’ll want to make sure everything is in top shape and will remain so until you arrive from the holidays. In this light, call on the decades-experienced and top-peforming roofers at Roper Roofing to help you with any residential metal roofing maintenance needs you have. Contact us today!
