Repairing Roof Leaks – Tips from a Cartersville, GA Roofer

If you’re a homeowner, you’ll know how much of a chore it is to keep your home maintained. There’s never a year that goes by without the need for some maintenance task like repainting walls, redoing gardens or even just spring cleaning. With everything to keep up with, it’s no wonder roof leaks are so common, most homeowners are just too swamped to get around to everything. Eventually some area of the home, like the roof or plumbing will start to give problems.

If you have a roof leak, that’s no reason to stress. Most roof leaks aren’t caused by major structural problems with your roof. Unless your roof is old and past its life expectancy, getting a roof leak fixed is easy, affordable and painless.

However, this doesn’t mean you should put off fixing a leaky roof. If your roof is leaking, you should repair the roof leak as soon as possible in order to prevent more serious damage to your roof.

What Causes Roof Leaks?

Before you fix your leaky roof, you might want to consider what caused the leak. By understanding what causes roof leaks, you can avoid leaks in the future. Some of the most common causes for roof leaks include:

• Debris buildup: Keeping your gutters and other roof draining systems clear of debris is one of the easiest ways you can prevent a roof leak. When leaves, twigs and other debris block your roof draining systems, water won’t drain effectively, which can lead to a leak.
• Ineffective draining systems: Ideally your roof draining systems should help water run off your roof as fast as possible. An ineffective draining system can increase the load on certain areas of your draining system, causing them to become overloaded.
• Holes: While it’s rather obvious that holes can cause water to leak through, the cause of a hole in your roof is what should concern you. If you have a brand new roof that’s already leaking, chances are your roofer damaged the roofing materials during installation. But older roofs can also have holes. Sometimes holes form as a result of wear and tear, other times it might be because you forgot to seal a whole after removing a TV antenna.
• Leaky seals: If your roof leak is surrounding an area like a skylight, chances are you need to reseal the area around this opening.
• Missing shingles: Roof shingles can get damaged by wind, hail, and other wear and tear. This can sometimes cause them to break off or crack. If you have damaged and missing shingles, there’s a good chance that this is the cause of your roof leak.
• Wear and tear: Like anything else in life, your roof won’t last forever. General wear and tear causes the roofing materials to weaken over time, making a roof more prone to leaks.

The most basic thing all homeowners can do to prevent roof leaks from forming to start with is simply to keep their gutters clean. When your gutters are clean, water can drain off your roof the way it should.

All About Repairing Roof Leaks

The first step in fixing a roof leak is finding it. Perhaps you already know of an area on your roof where there’s a hole or a missing shingle. In these cases, simply replacing the missing shingle, or sealing off the hole is likely to stop the leak.

However, things aren’t always that simple, and sometimes simply finding a roof leak is a task in itself. Your best chance of finding the area where water is leaking in is to carefully look at your roof while standing next to your house. Try to spot potential culprits like cracked shingles and holes. Pay special attention to areas where different parts of your roof come together, like where different roof panels come together and even the area around your chimney. If you have roof damage, it shouldn’t be too hard to see it, even when inspecting your roof from the ground.

Resist the urge to get up on your roof to do a roof inspection yourself. Not only can this result in a nasty fall, you might unknowingly make the problem worse by damaging your roof while you walk around on it.

The best way to find the area where your roof is leaking is to call a roofing professional to help you find and repair your roof leak. There are many professional roofers in Cartersville, GA – simply do an online search to find a roofer near you.

Even if you manage to spot the roof damage yourself. It’s always best to have leaks repaired by a professional. Not only will professionals do a better job of fixing your roof leak, they’ll also implement the necessary precautions to prevent injuries on the job from falls and negligence.

1OAK – Cartersville, GA Roofers

At 1OAK, we specialize in all your roofing needs. Our team of skilled staff can help you easily find and repair damage on both a commercial or residential roof, regardless of whether your roof is flat or sloped. We also offer roof inspections to help you stay ahead of your roof maintenance and fix problems before they get out of hand. Call 1OAK today and schedule your roof repair.