Roof Maintenance Tips For Oklahoma Winters

By: Ben Anton

Winter weather in Oklahoma can be nasty: cold temperatures, heavy rain, ice and snow are common during the winter months. Such extreme weather patterns have a negative effect on many different parts of your home, and the roof is one area that many homeowners regretfully overlook when preparing for cold winter weather.

Without proper preparation or roof maintenance, roof problems can quickly go from bad to worse. Here are a few easy steps you can take to ensure that your roof will survive the winter as well as possible.

Inspect the Roof
The first step in maintaining a roof is to have it inspected on a regular basis. Oklahoma City roofing professionals suggest getting your roof inspected at least once a year. Broken tree limbs and dead leaves can increase the wear and tear on a roof, so if your house is near a lot of trees, you might want to get it inspected twice a year.

If you plan on doing the inspection yourself, make sure you know what to look for???broken shingles, worn areas, holes and decay. While you're up there, take a look at your gutters. A blocked gutter system can cause major problems for even the toughest roof.

Proper Ventilation
A major cause of roof decay and collapse is poor ventilation. The best way is to keep an eye on temperatures inside your. If the house is unusually warm during the summer and horribly cold during the winter, chances are your roof isn't properly ventilated, and you should have a local roofing company investigate.

Remove Tree Debris
Broken branches can scrape and scratch the shingles, and cause major damage, so make sure you trim any heavy, low-hanging branches. Smaller debris like nuts, pinecones, twigs and leaves can accumulate on top of your roof and rot, causing your shingles to decay faster than normal. Climbing plants are also a big threat. Wisteria and ivy are known to climb up the sides of houses and tear right through gutters and shingles. Make sure to uproot any invasive climbing species as soon as you can ??? they can get out of hand pretty quickly.

Clean the Gutters
Blocked gutters can cause damage to your roof, so make sure you keep them clean, too.

Treat Your Roof
Your roof should be treated every three to five years. If you deal with a professional roofing company, they should be treating your roof as part of their regular maintenance routine. Otherwise, you can do it yourself with a high-quality roof cleanser.

These are all great tips for keeping your Oklahoma roof functioning properly during the winter, but remember ??? if a project is just too big or dangerous to handle yourself, call an Oklahoma City roofer.

Article Source: http://home2garden.co.za

About The Author
Need a professional roofing maintenance company? Oklahoma Exteriors has the most experienced roofers in Oklahoma City, OK. Visit our website to schedule a free, no-obligation roof inspection for your home.