Ways to Enhance and Protect Your Home and Roof

Homeowners often underestimate how quickly the structural and cosmetic integrity of their homes can deteriorate. In the absence of the right kind of planning, your home could be in danger. Granted, most people don’t have the expertise to address every contingency. But it is crucial to protect your home and roof. Luckily, homeowners can take some simple steps to preserve the value and beauty of their homes and roofs.

Innovative Structures

One innovative structure is the Cobra® Rigid Vent 3™ exhaust vent. Contractors can install this device along the ridge of your home’s roof to conduct heat, moisture, and contaminants from your attic to the outside air. It is designed to use an innovative “shingle-over” assembly, so it is nearly invisible from the outside of the home. The unit’s structure itself makes it an effective barrier to insects, weather, and outside particles and debris.

Effective Heat Abatement

Heat, both inside and outside the house, has the potential to damage your home over time. The Cobra® Rigid Vent 3™ helps balance the buildup of heat inside the home. It helps prevent the thermal stresses that lead to the deterioration of materials and the loss of an effective seal between the interior and exterior.

Contaminant Reduction

With a balanced thermal cycle comes the ability to prevent moisture traps, leaks in the structure, and other imperfections, leading to problems ranging from mold buildup to expensive structural damage. Mold can cause a multitude of dangerous health effects that involve difficulty breathing, eye irritation, headaches, coughing, and fatigue, among other symptoms. With a properly installed vent installed by a qualified contractor, the potential for heat and moisture buildup is dramatically reduced.

Energy Efficient

All homeowners need to reduce their energy costs. A proper ventilation system doesn’t just protect your home and roof. Combined with a well-implemented energy plan, it can bring your home several ongoing benefits at a fraction of the cost of many alternatives.

If you and your family are looking for a qualified contractor to evaluate your roofing needs, contact Eagle Watch Roofing. We are ready to provide you with all the benefits of a reliable roofing plan and the peace of mind of exemplary craft.

The Importance of Protecting Your Roof

Roofs are one of the most important structures of your home to protect yourself and your loved ones from the outside elements. Therefore, having a safe, secure, and resilient roof is essential. Immediately fixing your roof after damage is vital to ensure the safety of your home.

Ways You Can Protect Your Home and Roof

Paint It

If completed correctly, painting your roof can protect your roof for approximately 15 years. Paint not only protects your roof from weathering but from the effects of heat degradation and light fading as well. Many roof paints are water-resistant, algae-resistant, moss-resistant, and mold-resistant. The paint also serves as a sealant from moisture and air that could otherwise seep into the roof. Different colored paints have different effects as well. For example, darker colors absorb the heat and sun, while cooler and brighter colors reflect the heat and sun. Therefore, roof paints serve as a natural energy saver.

Replace Missing or Broken Shingles

Immediately replacing missing and broken shingles on your roof is essential to extend your roof’s life expectancy. Shingles protect your roof from the outside elements such as water, snow, and ice, which in Georgia is very important in the winter season.

If there are missing or damaged shingles, the elements can get under the other shingles and your roof, which causes more damage and exposes more sensitive parts of your roof (i.e., flashing). Wind can end up lifting up the surrounding shingles, and rain could seep in as well, causing the ever-dreaded water damage and mold.

Not only would your roof be in danger from the elements, but sneaky critters could hide in the gaps. This causes a whole new type of issue for your roof, which leads to a longer, more extensive, and more expensive repair time. Critters, such as raccoons and squirrels, can paw up and collect remaining and broken shingles to make room for or even use as a nest. Squirrels tend to mistake insulation as a meal to collect and eat.

Apply a Roof Sealant

Roof sealants are just one of many contributing factors to enhance your roof’s life cycle. Sealants protect roofs from outside elements and storms, such as rain, snow, and wind. These are significant factors to consider in Georgia since the state receives approximately 140 days of rainfall that reaches an estimated 60 inches annually. Water damage can result in a leaking roof that compromises the structural integrity of the roofing and the general home. What we mean is not only will the roof and walls be exposed to possible damage, but the subfloors, rafters, drywall, insulation, and joists will also be.

These damages will take time and will be costly to fix. Plus, the walls will most likely need to be primed and painted all over again to cover one of the symptoms of leaking water, yellow spotting. Roof sealants also protect against heat and ultraviolet rays to decrease the weathering down of the roofs.

Fix Eaves and Roof Edges

So you may ask, “what are eaves on my roof?” Well, eaves are the lower borders of your roof that hangs over the wall. Eaves are both aesthetically appealing as well as practical. Roof eaves can help reduce moisture on your home’s exterior walls, as well as block out overexposure to sunlight. Eaves prove helpful in all seasons by protecting your home’s exterior walls from rain also. Therefore, it is important to keep your roof’s eaves intact and fresh.

Protect Against Sun Damage

Sun damage can have a myriad of detrimental effects on your roof. For example, sun rays and UV radiation tends to dry out your roof’s coating, which allows for cracks and indentations to sneak in. These cracks and peeling of the roof sealant and layers further expose the roof to possible hazards.

Address Roof Ponding

Roof ponding causes many issues for your home, but first: What is roof ponding? Roof ponding is when water sits on your roof to eventually form puddles. If not addressed almost immediately, these puddles build up to water ponding which leads to corrosion, leaks, and mold on your roof. In order to prevent roof ponding, re-pitching the roof when needed is important. How do you know when to re-pitch the roof, though? Some main characteristics that stand out include rotting or a sagging roof. Re-pitching roofs can be a strenuous, difficult, and arduous task. Hence, contacting your local roofing company, Eagle Watch Roofing, can help re-pitch the roof properly and safely.

Other steps to prevent roof-ponding involve cleaning drainage sites, building more drainage lines, having a slanted roof, replacing the roof’s “membrane,” and through compressing the insulation.

What is a roof’s “membrane” and its function?

A roof membrane, not too different from a human membrane protecting against toxins, protects a building’s interior with watertight coverage from the toxic results of water damage.

Innovative Structures can Enhance Your Roof

Innovative roofing structures can not only increase the resiliency of your roof but add a little pizzazz of aesthetic appeal. Here is a quick list of innovative roofing structures:

Cool Roofs

Cool roofing is basically a lighter color roof that reflects UV rays (and the heat they bring) away from your home. Darker-colored roofing materials, such as asphalt, absorb the sun’s rays and heat, which causes increased temperatures in your home, and, as a result, energy for the air conditioning will be used more. This can be both expensive and have negative externalities on the natural environment.

Green Roofs

Green roofs are quite unique and can be a fun household and family endeavor. Basically, green roofs are gardens, so you are converting a boring basic roof into a rooftop garden. This can not only be a fun household bonding opportunity but protects against UV radiation, heat, and roof ponding. The garden both absorbs the heat and serves as a natural shade against the sun’s rays.

Innovative Roofing System

An innovative roofing system (IRS) is a sustainable roofing option for providing much natural light into the house while reducing the amount of heat the natural light brings with it into the household. This can be particularly useful in tropical and subtropical climates, such as in Georgia. Tested materials for IRS are polycarbonates, hybrid turbine ventilators, and pigmentation techniques.

Solar Roofs

Solar panels can be added to your roof to increase the sustainability and environmental friendliness of your home. Not only would you be using clean energy, but the solar panels will absorb all the heat, so it does not go directly into your home. Therefore, you are not only transitioning to more environmentally-friendly energy but will be using your air conditioning less and, therefore, will be using less energy for the air conditioning.

Blue Roofs

You may have heard of the previous roofs before, but blue roofs are a newer idea. Simply put, blue roofs are another alternative to an environmentally friendly roof. Blue roofs protect against heat, roof ponding, and leaking by collecting and storing excess rainwater. The rainwater will be used later in a roof drainage water management system. This method of blue roofs can even be combined with green roofing. The stored water can be used for irrigation for the garden and plants.

Install a Roof-Ridge Vent and its Benefits

A roof-ridge vent is used to circulate warm air out of the home. This reduces your home’s energy consumption and increases comfort. A roof-ridge vent is more effective in comparison to a basic roof vent because of its location. Being at the top of the roof’s ridge, it releases the warm air through the attic in a vacuum-type effect.

Effective Heat Abatement

Generally speaking, green and cool roofs are some of the most effective strategies to naturally protect your home against the hot Georgian summers. Metal roofs are an excellent material to also reduce the amount of heat emitted into your home. Though, metal roof runoff can lead to much metal pollution runoff that is detrimental to the environment and groundwater.  Of course, this all ties back into the different styles of roofing in relation to materials, ventilation systems, and so on mentioned previously.

Contaminant Reduction

Roof runoff leaves all types of unhealthy and environmentally detrimental metal, algae, herbicides, and arsenic contaminants in the environment in its wake. This is another reason practicing green and environmentally friendly roofing techniques will help protect your home and your environment’s surrounding biodiversity against roof contaminants.

Consider Insulation

Insulation is an often ignored but nonetheless vital way to protect your home and keep your roof in top condition.

Inspect Your Attic

Overall, the most simple way to test your roofing insulation is by touching the ceiling of your attic to see whether it is excessively hot or cold. This can be your first step to deciding whether it is time to update your roof insulation, which can be done with the help of your local Eagle Watch roofers.

Add Roof Insulation

As mentioned previously, roof insulation protects against heat and cold temperatures and therefore saves energy and money.

Other Ways to Protect Your Home and Roof

As you check items off your list, there are a few more valuable tips for protecting your home. Don’t forget these!

Clean Your Gutters

Cleaning your gutters is important to avoid water and moisture build-up, to avoid attracting critters and creatures, and to prevent roof corrosion, degradation, mold, and leaks.

Trim Nearby Trees

Keeping up to date with your decorations and surrounding environment is important as well. If there is a hanging or tipping tree in danger of falling, breaking or losing branches, it is important to trim it. Falling limbs and branches of trees can cause severe and costly damage to your roof that can take an immense amount of time to fix.

Have Your Roof Inspected

Having consistent roof inspections by professional roofers, such as Eagle Watch Roofing, is important to ensure your roof is maintained and upkeep lasts as long as possible. If roofs are not consistently inspected, damages may not be caught that could later turn into a whole new costly roofing project in the future.

Trust the Professionals to Care for Your Roof

In order to ensure your roof is kept in the best repair for as long as possible with the best of care, always work with an experienced local roofing professional. Contact EagleWatch Roofing today for any roofing needs! We can inspect, update, repair, and replace.