It is impossible to understate the importance of your home’s roof. It is the component that protects you, your possessions, your pets, and your family from the ravages of nature. Your roof is also critical for the protection of your entire structure, including the wall supports and subfloor. A defective roof can even damage the exterior of your home. Unfortunately, there are several natural forces working against the health of Austin residential roofing. In Central Texas, most roof problems are related to hail, wind, trees, gutters, or flashing.
How Does Hail Damage Austin Residential Roofing?
Many people who have been inside their homes while large hail was falling have likened it to sounding as if someone was pounding their roofing with a sledgehammer. The noise represents the force with which the hail is impacting your roofing. However, every experienced residential roofing company knows that hailstones do not need to be the size of softballs to damage asphalt roofing shingles. Residential roofing companies often find that golf-ball sized hail has broken or cracked roof shingles, flashing, gutters, and other fixtures. The effects of quarter-sized hail can be nearly as destructive if combined with strong winds. Often, an Austin residential roofing company will discover that even pea-sized hail has inflicted damage, but the damage typically accumulates over time rather than during one storm.
How Does the Wind Inflict Damage on Austin Residential Roofing?
Although tornadoes are always a possibility in Central Texas, Austin residential roofing companies typically see more damage from the strong, straight-line winds that frequently accompany thunderstorms. These winds can damage your roof in two ways.
- Blow-offs: Most residential roof shingles are self-sealing, but they need time to complete the process. Even with the proper nailing pattern, strong winds can lift and remove shingles that have not yet sealed themselves. Blow-offs can also occur if the shingles are old or damaged.
- Impacts: Strong winds can pick up lawn furniture, trash bins, debris, and other heavy objects. These objects can then collide with your roofing, resulting in impact damage.
How Do Trees Damage Residential Roofing in Austin?
One of the most common images of tree-related damage to residential roofing involves all or most of the tree falling onto the home. Although that is certainly a possibility, tree damage often involves relatively small branches weighing just a few hundred pounds. That may sound like a lot, but trees can weigh much more. Depending on the size, species, and age, a living tree usually weighs at least 2,000 pounds, but many trees used for landscaping in Austin can weigh 20,000 pounds or more. Furthermore, overhanging branches do not need to fall on your roof to damage it. Low-hanging branches can scrape against your roof every time the wind moves them. Sooner or later, this will remove the granules from asphalt roofing shingles, robbing them of their ability to resist UV damage and remain watertight.
Why Are Gutters Important for Residential Roofing in Austin?
For one thing, you do not want to allow water to pool on top of your roofing. As gravity pulls the water downward, it can penetrate deep into the structure of your roof, damaging your underlayment, decking, and wooden roof trusses. It will not be long before you experience leaks in your interior spaces. Without gutters, water can infiltrate the space between your exterior cladding and your interior, damaging insulation, wooden wall studs, and drywall. However, if you have gutters, you must make sure that they do not become clogged. Clogged gutters can force water under the edges of your roofing, damaging all of its basic structural components as well as your fascia boards and soffit.
How Does Flashing Affect the Integrity of Austin Residential Roofing?
There are many excellent reasons why an Austin residential roofing company includes flashing when preparing a quote for a new or replacement roof. Here are just two of them.
- Flashing seals intersecting roof planes or penetrations against water infiltration. Thus, you will commonly find flashing where two sections of your roof meet, around vents, where walls meet, and around your chimney.
- Flashing helps channel runoff to your gutters so that your roof can shed the water safely and quickly. The longer it takes rain to leave your roof, the more likely it becomes that the water will find a path underneath your residential roofing.
Since 2008, A Frame Home Services has provided high-quality work to homeowners and businesses throughout greater Austin as a commercial and residential roofing company. We are an Owens-Corning preferred contractor, a BBB accredited business, and a veteran-owned company. We offer many services, including residential roofing, roof repairs, gutters, commercial maintenance, siding, painting, doors and windows, residential landscaping, residential concrete, and general contractor services. We have earned an exceptional reputation for responsiveness, exemplary workmanship, and competitive rates. Contact us for a free quote by calling our Austin location at (512) 786-0316 or Houston (832) 844-8585, or email at [email protected] or [email protected]