Roof Maintenance

To maintain the effectiveness and useful life of your roof, it is important that your home maintenance program include the proper maintenance for your roof.

 Maintenance Task:  Inspect and clean roof and eaves

Maintenance of your roof consists of 5 tasks:

1. Inspect and repair roof shingles: Using a pair of binoculars, you can walk around and look for obvious problems from the ground.  If necessary, climb a ladder and look for damaged or missing shingles.  If the roof is slate, look for slate which is broken or with loose nails.  If your roof has wooden shakes, look for missing sections or warpage.  Also inspect for water damage beneath shingles where ice damming may have occurred.  Replace or repair any areas as necessary.

2. Inspect and repair roof flashing: Roof "flashing" are pieces of metal which cover areas where roofing meets objects on the roof, such as chimneys, vent pipes, dormers, other sections of roofing, around the edge of the roof, etc.  Check flashing for damage, rusting, or separation.  As required, sections should be replaced, re-painted, or re-sealed with caulking compound or roof cement.  See your hardware professionals regarding re-painting procedures for your particular situation.

3. Clean build-up around eaves:  Eaves are the areas under where your roof overhangs the outside walls.  These areas tend to build-up with debris, insects and other nests, etc.  A broom or water hose can be used to clear debris from the area around the eaves.  Build-up under the eaves can lead to rotting of wood, and be breeding areas for insects and other pests.  

4. Sweep roof clean: Remove debris from the roof, such as branches, leaves, pine needles, etc.  This debris retains moisture and encourages decay, and their build-up can impede water run-off, which can promote water puddling that can lead to leaks.  Be careful not to damage the shingles while sweeping, but try to remove foreign material from the space between the shakes or shingles.

5. Remove mold, mildew, or moss: Mold, mildew, and moss should be cleaned from roofs.  Contact your hardware professional for the cleaning methods that applies to your specific situation.

Proper roof maintenance will reduce the likelihood of leaks which can lead to inside water damage, and it also helps extend the useful life of the roof.

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QUESTIONS & ANSWERS from "Ask-the-Wizard":

QUESTION from Cindy on 5/6/2008:

We have a room with a vaulted ceiling. Dark lines are starting to appear on the flat portion of the ceiling, next to the vaulted portion. The lines follow or outline the roof trusses. What can be causing this? If we paint over them, how do we know they will not come back?

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM ON 5/6/2008:

Dear Cindy:

It sounds like you have moisture leaking into your ceiling, and it is traveling along the ceiling joists, getting this area wet and likely attracting mold.

Because of the construction of vaulted ceilings, there are often number places where the roof lines intersect. And the places where the roof lines intersect they are covered with pieces of thin metal called "flashing". Over time (or if it was not installed properly), this flashing loosens up, and can allow water to come in through where the two sections of roofing meet. This could be where rain water is dripping into your ceiling, and then running down until it hits the ceiling joists.

The other possibility is that if there is not proper ventilation in your vaulted ceiling, and that when the warm moist air in your room meets the cold wood of your roof, that it causes moisture to condense out into your ceiling.

And yet another possibility is that, depending on the orientation of your roof lines (and the region of the country that you are in), that the moisture could be due to "ice damming", which is causing water to puddle on your roof, and then to seep into your ceiling under the shingles.

But to answer your question, yes, if these lines indeed are caused by mold due to moisture, then if you just paint over the dark lines they will keep coming back until you eliminate the source of the moisture.

You might want to start by talking with either a home inspector, or a qualified roofing contractor, who can inspect your particular situation and pinpoint the specific likely source of your moisture.

Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.com
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QUESTION from bob woytko on 6/6/2008
What is the proper way to install a metal roof and flashing that abuts to brick and is over a bow or bay window?

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM on 6/8/2008
Bob:

Properly installing roof flashing is very important, as this an area that can easily lead to future problems with roof leaks.

Here is a link to a webpage that does a fair good job of describing how to install flashing, and includes a discussion of when the flashing need to abutt brick:

http://www.askthebuilder.com/B25_Metal_Roof_Flashings.shtml

Hope this is helpful.

Home-Wizard.com
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FOLLOW-UP COMMENT from Bob Woytko on 6/9/2008
Dear Home Wizard,

Thanks for your prompt reply.

First of all I have very little knowledge on roofing procedures. What I trying to ask you is for my 85 year old my mother-in-law. She bought a new house 2+ years ago and a bow window leak problem was noticed shortly after wards. The builder "fixed" it shortly after, but the problem was never fixed, and we are again trying to get it fixed by the builder--who is resisting.

The roof of the bay window is metal and the builder took the roof up to the brick only, and then the original fix entailed the installation of a plastic 4" cover over the brick and the metal and both of these edges were then caulked. This to me is not a true flashing and was nothing but a problem waiting to happen.

Shouldn't the metal roofing had continued beyond the roof and gone up the bricks (therefore a combined roof and flashing)and been secured with glue and screws and been caulked? 

What would the normal commercial building practice for this type of roof be? And what are some ways to now fix the problem? 

Thanks for your help,
Bob Woytko

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM on 6/9/2008
Bob:

Its nice of you to be helping out your elderly mother-in-law.

I agree with you that from your description, I would have thought the contractor would have carried the metal flashing up the brick, and sealed the top edge.

With that said, its a bit hard to judge a particular installation situation, without physically seeing it. In other words, there may have been a logical reason why the contractor had to do it a certain way for her particular route.

Just a thought for you, we have quite a few sponsors of Home-Wizard that are certified home inspectors. Depending on where you live, we would be glad to provide you an introduction to a local home inspector. As you may know, home inspectors are trained experts in home construction practices, and in addition to reviewing her roof flashing, they could also do a safety inspection for her entire house while they are there. From my experience, I've found them to be very reasonably priced, and you get good value.

The other advantage of you contacting a local home inspector, is that depending on what they determine, you will have a recommendation to go back to your contractor with from someone who has physically seen their work.

You can also find local home inspectors at sites like: http://www.nachi.org/ or http://www.ashi.org/

Home this is helpful
Home-Wizard.com
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QUESTION from Cindy on 5/6/2008
We have a room with a vaulted ceiling. Dark lines are starting to appear on the flat portion of the ceiling, next to the vaulted portion. The lines follow or outline the roof trusses. What can be causing this? If we paint over them, how do we know they will not come back?

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM on 5/6/2008
Dear Cindy:

It sounds like you have moisture leaking into your ceiling, and it is traveling along the ceiling joists, getting this area wet and likely attracting mold.

Because of the construction of vaulted ceilings, there are often number places where the roof lines intersect. And the places where the roof lines intersect they are covered with pieces of thin metal called "flashing". Over time (or if it was not installed properly), this flashing loosens up, and can allow water to come in through where the two sections of roofing meet. This could be where rain water is dripping into your ceiling, and then running down until it hits the ceiling joists.

The other possibility is that if there is not proper ventilation in your vaulted ceiling, and that when the warm moist air in your room meets the cold wood of your roof, that it causes moisture to condense out into your ceiling.

And yet another possibility is that, depending on the orientation of your roof lines (and the region of the country that you are in), that the moisture could be due to "ice damming", which is causing water to puddle on your roof, and then to seep into your ceiling under the shingles.

But to answer your question, yes, if these lines indeed are caused by mold due to moisture, then if you just paint over the dark lines they will keep coming back until you eliminate the source of the moisture.

You might want to start by talking with either a home inspector, or a qualified roofing contractor, who can inspect your particular situation and pinpoint the specific likely source of your moisture.

Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.com
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QUESTION from Charles Theobald on 8/17/2009
I have a traditional ashphalt shingle roof. I am getting lichen and moss growing on the surface, is this problematic? Thank you.

ANSWER FROM HOME-WIZARD.COM on 8/17/2009
Dear Charles:

Lichen is a type of fungus that grows with algae on roof shingles, forming a combined organism with crust-like growth. Lichens can penetrate deep into shingles and feed off of their organic oil base. It is important to remove lichen, moss and algae from your roof to prevent damage and to prolong the lifespan of your shingles.

Here is a webpage which describes how to why lichen and moss forms on asphalt roofs, and what you can do to prevent it. Note however, that the article also describes how to use a pressure washer to clean your roof, and I would strongly recommend leaving this task to a trained professional.

http://www.askthebuilder.com/672_Roof_Cleaning.shtml

Hope this is helpful.
Home-Wizard.copm
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