Our homes protect us from the elements. When it’s hot outside, we turn the air conditioner on in our homes, and we crank up the heat when it’s cold out. Our roofs are one of the most prominent players in keeping us protected from the elements. Like anything in our homes, our roofs need tender love and care to do their jobs. In this article, I will discuss how water damage affects your roof.
1. Water Damage Can Cause Mold
The first and most common way in which water causes damage to your home’s roof is by slipping through a crack in the top layer of your roof. The top layer of your roof is meant to repel and resist all forms of foreign entities, including water. When this barrier is breached either through faulty installation, regular wear, and tear, or an actual violent event, like a hail strike or a branch fall, it can cause a breach. When water passes through the defensive barrier, it starts to cause harm to your overall roofing system. If moisture finds its way into the underpinnings of your roof, depending on the roof, it can start to grow mold. Left unchecked this could yield anything from health problems to the inhabitants of your home all the way to possibly a risk to the structural integrity of your roof itself.
2. Water Damage Can Expose Your Home
Another way in which water damage affects your home’s roof is when your gutter system starts failing, and the gutter begins to pull away from the roof. This sagging can leave an opening where the gutter system was once secured, which can allow water to seep into the open space. This gap can enable the growth of mold and mildew, which can ultimately weaken the roofing structure as a whole. Even if this does not cause catastrophic mold growth and structural weakening to your home’s roof, it can still create exposure. This exposure will chip away at your roof’s ability to retain an ambient temperature in your home. While this is not the biggest deal in the world, it is undoubtedly an annoying side effect of your home’s roof suffering water damage.
3. The Dreaded Freeze and Thaw Cycle
The third and most common form of water damage affecting your home’s roof is heavy snowfall and dramatic temperature change during the snowing season. During a snowstorm, most of the snow falls off the roof while it is snowing, but as the snowfall comes to an end and the temperature starts to rise, the snow that is left starts to melt and accumulate on your roof. Now if this were to continue, getting warmer, it would be great, and the heavy snow would all melt right off. Unfortunately, things are never that easy. Sometimes the warmer day will bring a colder night, and that sloppy snow that was nicely melting off your roof starts to freeze. Now, this is problematic because this thaw and freeze cycle can cause a multitude of problems. The quickly freezing rivulets of water snaking across your roof can find their way into what were once small superficial cracks in your roof and as they freeze they expand and what were once small cracks are now beginning to become bigger holes. The other big problem is the weight of the snow and ice since it strains your home’s roof and structural support system.
If you are searching for a water damage company in Asheville or Hendersonville, NC call Secure Restoration at (828) 490-7800.
