The overabundance of snow we’ve experienced this winter could be putting a real strain on the roof of your house.
Shawn Tyson is an exterior renovations and roofing contractor.
The weight of the snow is one obvious concern. The other big one, says Tyson, is ice damming.
“Basically, if your attic isn’t properly insulated,” he observes, “what happens is a lot of the heat will rise, hit the roof, got nowhere to go so it starts to melt it and then as it melts and freezes, melts and freezes, it backs up on the shingles and it starts to tear apart the shingles and can actually cause leaking in the house.”
Tyson adds that his best advice is to be pro-active. If you can’t get up on the roof to rid it of some of the snow yourself, find someone who can do it for you.
Back to the weight of the snow: It gets even heavier as spring rain falls.
“You know what, if you can get somebody up there and get some of that weight off the roof, would be a big help,” Tyson again advises. “That’s where I would start, is get up there, take some of the load off. You know, some of the older houses don’t have the engineered trusses as the new ones do, so if you get it off there, it’s just a little precaution.”