Warm weather months are an excellent time to prepare your commercial flat roof for winter. In the summer and fall, you can take care of maintenance tasks that keep your roof safe when colder temperatures hit your area. Let’s look at the maintenance tasks you can use to prepare your flat roof for the winter months.
What Types of Summer and Fall Maintenance Tasks Should You Perform?
When you maintain your flat roof system in the summer and fall, it’s best to keep your roof clear and clean. Here are several maintenance tips and tasks you can use to keep your commercial roof clean and safe in the summer and fall:
- Clear debris from the roof: When leaves, sticks, dirt, standing water, and other debris build up on your roof, they put extra weight on the roof system. If you don’t remove debris from your flat roof in the fall and summer, it creates stress on your roof during the winter. For example, if you leave standing water untouched on your roof, it can freeze in the winter, which harms the roof membrane and shortens its long-term lifespan. Similarly, falling leaves add weight to your roof that can be compounded by ice and snow in winter if you don’t remove the leaves earlier.
- Clear gutters and downspouts: Your commercial gutters and downspouts play a critical role in removing water from your roof. How? Well, flat roofs aren’t truly flat. They’re really slightly sloped roofs, and those small slopes allow water to flow from all over the roof membrane to the gutters. Once the water flows through the gutters, it hits the commercial roof drains. If the gutters and drains become clogged, they can’t get rid of the water on your roof. In fact, water can pool around clogs that haven’t been cleared. If that pooled water freezes during winter weather, it can form ice dams around those clogs. Ice dams weigh down your gutters and downspouts, and they take much longer to melt than snow does. When ice dams form in your drains and gutters, the dams can pull the gutters and drains off your building with their weight. Clearing your gutters and downspouts prevents this problem from happening before winter arrives.
- Schedule a roof inspection: Schedule an annual roof inspection during the summer or fall months to ensure your roof is in great shape before winter comes. Contact your professional roofing partner if you have one. They can inspect your roof to check for any existing problems and recommend steps you can take to prepare your roof for winter. Once they complete the inspection, your contractor can perform roof repairs that keep your roof safe when winter arrives.
These tips and tasks help your roof system operate properly in the summer and fall so it’s prepared for winter weather.
What Benefits Does Summer and Fall Roof Maintenance Provide?
The summer and fall roof maintenance tasks listed above reduce the damage your roof sustains in warm and cold weather months. They ensure that your roof drains rain, snow, and sleet properly throughout the year without clogs disrupting the drainage process. They also prevent debris and clogs from causing unnecessary damage to your roof when winter weather hits your location. Summer and fall roof maintenance tasks keep your roof system in excellent shape so it can handle winter weather well.
How Does Kirberg Prepare Your Roof for Winter?
We perform inspections that include clearing debris from your roof and unclogging your drainage system. We work with a range of roofing materials, so we can adjust our inspection to suit your roof membrane’s needs. When we inspect your roof, we ensure the roof’s design and installation help drain water off the surface. Overall, we prepare your roof for winter by providing the inspection and repair services that your membrane needs to function properly.
If you want to prepare your commercial flat roof for winter weather, reach out to Kirberg Company today. We use our century of knowledge and experience to provide our customers with customized roofing solutions, and we will do the same for you. We’re ready to clear debris and repair your roof to prevent cold-weather damage.
