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Winter, spring, summer and fall each bring their own unique challenges to your home and your roof! Let’s learn how the whole roof system protects your home and your family from seasonal roof damage. Winter roof damage: Beware the icicle roof damage Problem: The greatest threat your roof faces during the winter is ice damming. Ice damming occurs when the sun and heat from inside your home conspire to melt the snow and ice on your roof. The meltwater flows to the edges of your roof, where it refreezes and creates a literal dam that prevents more meltwater from running off. Icicles – sometimes really big ones – begin to form. This is not good: ice dams can damage your roof, attic or the interior walls of your home. How can you prevent ice damming? Solutions: Effective ventilation, fiberglass underlayment. A properly vented roof is your best defense against ice damming. Exhaust vents, like ridge vents, allow warm, moist air to escape your attic while intake vents enable cool air to enter. A cooler attic means less snow and ice melt, which helps prevent damming. A quality fiberglass underlayment like Winterguard® from CertainTeed provides an added waterproof barrier that keeps thawing ice from damaging the roof deck underneath. Winterguard is a sticky and elastic asphalt polymer that actually seals around the nails driven through it. It should be applied at vulnerable areas like the edges of your roof or at seams where water from melting ice is most likely to penetrate. Summer roof damage: Shingles save the day roof damage Problems: Like you, your roof isn’t immune to the harmful effects of the sun’s heat and UV rays. As the sun beats down on your roof, that heat transfers to the inside of the attic. According to the Asphalt Roofing Manufacturer’s Association (ARMA), the temperature inside your attic can be nearly 65% hotter than the temperature outdoors. This heat buildup in your attic can cause serious roof damage, forcing your shingles to deteriorate rapidly from the inside out. Exposure to UV rays can also degrade the asphalt in your shingles, making them brittle. Brittle shingles can crack, and cracks are a direct route for water to infiltrate your roof. Solutions: Effective ventilation, quality asphalt shingles. The same exhaust and intake vents that benefit your roof in the winter save your roof in the summer, too. Excess heat buildup escapes through the ridge vents. Cooler air enters through the edge vents. Attic temperatures go down. That’s science in action! Excess moisture that rises with the heat is also expelled. If not vented, this moisture can cause serious roof damage, allowing mold to grow or rotting your roof from the inside out. Quality asphalt shingles are made to withstand the sun’s damaging UV rays. Shingles are made up of several functional layers: backsurfacing, asphalt, fiberglass basemat and granules. The opaque, UV-resistant granules that also give shingles their colors are the primary defense against UV damage. Made of mineral, brick or ceramic, the opaque granules keep the sun’s rays from reaching the asphalt underneath. Roof damage in the spring and fall: Weathering the storms roof damage Problems: We’ve all experienced those scary spring storms that shock you awake in the middle of the night: howling wind, sheets of rain, rolling thunder. You dread fallen trees, downed wires or serious roof damage. It’s scary. In the fall, storms may not be quite as severe, but there is still a lot of rain, debris and wind as the temperature changes and leaves fall from the trees. Feel confident that your roof can stand up to these challenges? Solutions: Asphalt starter shingles, drip edge, flashing, fiberglass underlayment, gutters. Quality roofing materials like asphalt shingles, flashing, fiberglass underlayment and drip edge all work to keep the water off of your roof and out of your home. Asphalt starter shingles are specially designed to resist tear-off from wind. A superior sealant on the underside of starter shingles keeps them in place at the edges of your roof, where shingle application starts and wind forces are greatest. Drip edge is a thin, narrow, non-porous strip of sheet metal that is bent over the outside edges of your roof. It essentially wraps the edge of the roof decking in a protective layer. Drip edge should be installed OVER the underlayment at the rakes to prevent wind and rain from getting under the rough edge of the shingle. The drip edge is installed UNDER the underlayment at the eaves where it is an added layer of defense against sitting water such as from ice dams or clogged gutters. Flashing keeps the water flowing at the places where the roof meets a wall, like the base of a chimney, a porch or a dormer. These eaves and valleys are the places where your roof is most vulnerable to water penetration. Underlayment is the last line of water defense. Like winter, this waterproof or water-resistant layer applied under your shingles keeps your roof decking dry. High-quality asphalt shingles stand up to all of the challenges that spring and autumn bring—it’s their job! The asphalt in good shingles makes them tough enough to handle wind and small debris, and that’s we use CertainTeed shingles.”CertainTeed is UL Certified to meet the industry standard for measured toughness of a shingle, ASTM D3462,” Jeff Frantz, Washington, D.C. metro area Territory Manager for CertainTeed Roofing Products says. “This test is for tear resistance, nail pull resistance and pliability. Certified to meet UL is a key quality standard at CertainTeed.” While gutters aren’t technically part of the roof itself, gutters have an important role in your whole roof system. Clogged gutters from falling leaves can allow moisture to stay at the eaves. This moisture can contribute to the formation of ice dams that do so much damage to a roof in winter months. Autumn is a great time to have your gutters cleaned or have gutter guard installed to keep them clean and clear. You can call a local company like Long Roofing to have your roof and gutters checked for damage so repairs can be made before the harsh winter weather sets in.

Maybe you noticed some curling or missing shingles. Maybe – worse yet – you saw a water spot, a noticeable leak or even light poking through from the outside. After 25 or 30 years (or the misfortune of a terrible storm), it’s time to call a roofing contractor. You need a new roof for your home. You search online to find out if you really need a roof. You want to know how much it will cost. You try to find a roofing contractor in your area who can answer your questions. This search yields a few dozen roofers that service your community. Some have clever names and fancy websites. Others provide little more than a phone number. At this point, you may feel overwhelmed. How are you going to choose someone without turning the search for a roofing contractor into a full-time job? What’s the best way to learn more about a roofing contractor? Roofing contractor The easiest way to decide whether you are comfortable with a roofing contractor is by having a conversation and asking questions. The responses will tell you a lot about the person whose business you are considering. Here is a list of what are arguably the 5 most important questions to ask a roofing contractor. WHAT IS THE FULL NAME AND PHYSICAL ADDRESS OF YOUR COMPANY? roofing contractor This type of basic information may seem like it goes without saying. Not all roofing contractors, however, have an easy-to-use website that provides you with all of the details you need — like who you’ll actually be working with, and where you can find them if there’s trouble. A physical address is important for 2 reasons: A contractor with an office nearby is likely to provide better service and have references in your area. A P.O. box can indicate that a company has not been in business for very long. An experienced roofing contractor is usually more informed about local roofing requirements. A seasoned roofer can offer valuable feedback on how different products perform because he has been installing roofs for decades. DOES YOUR COMPANY CARRY INSURANCE? roofing contractor Any contractor working on your home should carry both liability and workers’ compensation insurance. These insurances ultimately protect YOU, the homeowner, in the unlikely event that an accident occurs. Liability insurance provides the contractor with coverage for job-related accidents or damage to your home. Workers’ compensation insurance provides coverage for the employees if they are injured on the job. Specific options for liability insurance vary and insurance requirements are often different state-to-state. You may need to do a little research regarding what to expect in your region. Both liability and workers’ compensation insurance ensure that IF anything goes wrong while work is being performed, the contractor’s insurance company covers the bill. Don’t be afraid to ask for proof of insurance! If an uninsured or underinsured company has an accident on your property, you may wind up paying for a lot more than a roof. WHAT ARE YOUR CREDENTIALS? roofing contractor License and schooling requirements vary by state, so again, this question requires some homework. Different states, different standards: Some states demand licensing, while others may require passing an exam or even certain amounts or schooling or apprenticing. HomeAdvisor’s State-by-State Contractor Licensing Requirements article is a solid starting point for researching requirements in your region. Be sure to call or check the websites of local and state municipalities to verify any information you find is up-to-date. DO YOU HAVE REFERENCES? roofing contractor References provide feedback from real-life roofing experiences. Your roofing contractor should be able to provide you with several references or referrals from previous jobs. Why are references important? People are twice as likely to share a negative experience than a positive one. Online reviews may be incomplete or inaccurate. A reference can provide you with facts based on their personal roofing experience, as well as the added bonus of feedback on product performance since installation. WHAT PRODUCTS DO YOU RECOMMEND? roofing contractor You’re already busy vetting your roofing contractor, so you shouldn’t have to spend time researching all of the roofing options on your own. A roofing contractor should be there to walk you through the decking, shingles, flashing and related products that are right for you based on your unique needs, wants and budget. Show and tell: A reputable contractor will bring samples to your home so that you can review the quality and aesthetics of the recommended products. The contractor should explain how different roofing materials and options can be combined to work best for your home. A good roofing contractor will also work with you to meet your budget without sacrificing quality. He should be able to support his recommendations with information that outlines the following details: Cost and Options Warranties (labor and product) Specifications and Standards (types of shingles, ventilation and underlayment ) Durability (fire, wind, tear and wind-driven rain resistance) If you can’t resist doing some preparatory research before you schedule to meet with a roofing contractor, Consumer Reports offers a list of basics when shopping for a new roof. Looking for more technical information? CertainTeed, an industry leader for more than 110 years, provides in-depth information into all facets of residential roofing. Comfort: The final question. roofing contractor You should feel comfortable asking questions. Your calls should be returned promptly. Schedules should be adhered to within reason, keeping in mind that weather is an unpredictable factor that does affect roofing schedules. The professionalism of the roofing contractor translates through the entire re-roofing process. If you aren’t getting answers to your questions or if the contractor is unprofessional, look elsewhere. Ready to talk to a roofing contractor? When you’re ready for an honest conversation with a professional roofer, contact us. We’ve spent 70 years protecting home and carry CertainTeed – SELECT ShingleMaster accreditation, a credential reached by just 1 out of every 100 roofers in the United States.