As winter weather rolls into the Midwest, we all need to look out for snow and ice damage to our commercial and residential roofs. Winter damage can affect your roof throughout the year and exacerbate damage that your roof sustains in spring and summer. Let’s look at the roof damage that can occur during winter and how you can deal with and prevent it.
What Types of Winter Roof Damage Can Occur?
When winter weather damages your roof, it could appear as one of a few types of damage. These types include:
- Ice Dams: An ice dam is a thick ridge of ice that forms at the bottom edge of a sloped roof. They often build up on homes or buildings where the attic or top floor has poor air circulation. If you have ice dams on your roof, they can build up and cause water and snow to build up, too. All this moisture can leak into your attic or top floor. Once the moisture travels into the attic and warms up, it can damage ceilings, walls, and insulation. Ice dams can also cause mildew and mold growth inside your home or commercial building.
- Snow Loads: Snow loads build up on your roof as snowfall occurs throughout the winter. Ice dams can make snow loads worse because they prevent the snow from sliding down and falling off your sloped roof. Snow loads also appear on flat roofs. In both cases, you should have your roofing contractor remove the snow. If you don’t remove snow loads, their weight can build up until your roof collapses. Snow can cause roof leaks, too, if it’s not removed.
- Gutter Damage: Gutter damage from snow loads and ice dams can take its toll on your roof. Ice dams can damage gutters by freezing and melting over them and stopping drainage. Snow loads can damage gutters even further when the snow slides down and off the roof. Both ice dams and snow loads can cause gutters to fall off your roof if you don’t deal with them.
These problems can seriously harm your roof. However, the right roofing contractor can help you prevent these problems.
How to Prevent Snow and Ice Damage on Your Roof
If you want to prevent ice and snow from building up and damaging your roof, contact your roofing contractor to schedule maintenance and snow removal appointments during the winter. Your contractor can examine your roof and determine how to solve these problems. For instance, they can examine the underside of your roof to see if poor circulation warms your roof and contributes to ice dams and leaks. They can also put measures in place that keep ice dams from forming and maintain your gutter system’s good condition. Finally, your contractor can remove excess snow from your roof surface. This removal process prevents snow loads from weighing your roof down. Your contractor can check your roof to see if it has sustained any damage during winter weather. Then they can perform repairs to stop the damage from growing more severe.
Why Partner With Kirberg for Winter Weather Repairs and Maintenance?
Partnering with Kirberg is a great way to maintain your commercial or residential roof during the winter. Why? Kirberg has provided roofing services for over 100 years now. We’ve helped our clients through 100 Midwestern winters, and we plan to be around for many more. Over the years, we’ve developed customizable practices that we use to keep sloped and flat roofs safe during the winter. Over the years, we’ve developed customizable practices that we use to keep sloped and flat roofs safe during the winter. For example, we offer snow removal to our residential and commercial clients. We also provide niche roofing services, such as our slate and tile maintenance program, so we can maintain as many roofs as possible. Trust us to develop the right customized solutions for your roof’s winter weather problems.
Prevent Winter Roof Damage With Kirberg Company
Reach out to us today to schedule winter roof maintenance. We do everything we can to keep your roof and gutter system safe no matter what winter weather passes through your area.
