During the cold months of the year, or even other anomaly patches of cold, the cold weather can affect your roof in many ways.
Here are 6 of the most common ways in which cold weather can affect your roof. If you spot any of the indications mentioned, make sure to get in touch with Roofers near me so that you can ensure the structural safety of your home.
1. Issues with drainage
Any blockages in your guttering can lead to drainage issues. Gutters can easily become clogged with various debris, like leaves, branches, moss, and sludge.
This is therefore more likely to happen during the cooler months of the year, especially autumn or fall, as many trees shed their leaves in order to survive harsh weather conditions.
When your drains are left blocked over time, this can lead to water damage.
2. Water damage
As well as a side effect of drainage issues, water damage can occur on your roof due to heavy rainfall.
In both instances, water can begin to collect in pools on your roof, entering under your roof tiles, and cause major structural damage within your home.
This includes everything from mould and mildew to rotten beams and damaged foundations.
3. Ice damage
During cold weather, water damage can also take on another form, as when the water turns to ice this can affect your roof in a whole host of other ways.
When water freezes, it starts to expand. Thus, if water turns to ice in a crack in your roof, the ice can make the crack larger. When this repeatedly happens, this is called freeze-thaw erosion.
Over time, the repeated freezing and thawing of water on your roof during cold weather can cause major damage to the tiles on your roof.
4. Snow damage
Snow damage is a more common occurrence on flat roofs. This is because if snow settles on a flat roof, it cannot easily fall of the sides, and so will melt into a pool of water on your roof due to the heat emitted from your home.
That being said, you can also cause more harm than good by trying to clear snow from your roof. Using a shovel can damage shingles, as can rock salt and other defrosters.
5. Wind damage
Cold weather can be down to bracing and biting winds which have come from afar, and thus wind damage is not exclusive to the traditionally cold months of the year, though it might be more common in winter.
Wind can put stress on your roof and shingles, as well as blowing debris repeatedly into the surface. The most damage is done when you have trees nearby, as the repeated hitting of branches, or in the worst case a fallen trunk, can cause structural and cosmetic damage.
6. Thermal shock
Even when the weather starts to warm up, the cold can still affect your roof. This is down to what we call thermal shock, which is a fluctuation in temperature that causes stress in materials, especially ceramics, which often results in fracturing.
Just remember, if you spot any signs of damage to your roof, whether mentioned above or not, always get in touch with a professional by searching for Roofers near me.
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