Home-Wizard.com Guide to Roof Maintenance including free automatic reminders

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Interactive Home Maintenance Guide

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.

Your roof is exposed to the direct impacts of weather, and proper maintenance is required for it to do its job of shielding from the elements. See also: Roof gutters, Attics, and Pest Control.

Shown below are the recommended routine maintenance tasks for your roof.

Learn to enjoy managing your home with our free Newsletter or our free Automatic Maintenance Reminders. We can also show you the Recommended Maintenance Schedules for your entire home.


		Maintenance Task: Inspect and clean roof and eaves

		How do you inspect and clean roof and eaves?
		Maintenance of your roof consists of 5 tasks: 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

		Why is it important to inspect and clean roof and eaves?
		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.

		How often should you inspect and clean roof and eaves?
		Perform annually during May, which will allow adequate time before the winter if major maintenance is required.

		How does Home-Wizard rate the costs and benefits for this task?
		The cost of this task is relatively high. You probably will want to hire a professional service to do this task. Or if you are having a service cleaning your gutters, you may be able to ask them to do the inspection while they are on your roof.

		The benefits of this task are relatively high. Doing this task can help prevent serious damage from water and pests, and will help extend the useful life of your roof.

		Overall Home-Wizard benefit-versus-cost rating (one 'hat' = low and four 'hats' = high):

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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