Is your roof winter ready?

The summer’s well behind us now and we’re heading into winter, but while we still have the odd day of decent weather, it’s definitely worth checking the condition of your roof, just to make sure there’s no obvious problems and that your roof is completely ready for the winter months ahead.

At Roofspec SW, we’re specialists in all aspects of roofing work and we cover the whole of Plymouth, Devon and wider south-west area. During our time we’ve built up the sort of experience that enables us to spot a roofing problem a mile off (slight exaggeration, but you get the idea). What we always encourage people to do, is check some of the roof yourself for the obvious signs and if you have any concerns after that then give us a call at Roofspec SW … we’ll take it from there.

So, as winter approaches here’s our suggestions of what to look out for.

1. Watermarks inside your house. Go round your house and start looking for any brownish watermarks either on your ceilings or down the walls. These will usually be on the top floor of the property and are always a good indication that the roof needs some work.
2. Next up, take a look inside your loft. If you can, get up there during the day, keep it as dark as you can and start looking around for any obvious signs of daylight peeping through the slates or tiles. This is a sure sign of an issue that needs to be addressed.
3. While you’re in the loft space, check out the timbers if you can. Touch them to see if they’re damp in anyway. Also, check that any insulation you might have is dry and isn’t holding water that’s leaked through.
4. Before you leave the loft space check for signs of condensation which will show as water build up on the underside of slates. This is where the warm air inside rises up to meet the cold air outside and creates condensation on the underside of the slates. It’s often an indication of poor ventilation in the roof and can result in black spot build up on your internal ceilings and walls and further damage.
5. Once you’re outside the property, look up and check the guttering. Look for signs of leakage, overspill and poor downpipe connections. These will all impact the performance of your roof and its ability to protect your property.
6. Look for missing slates. This is the obvious one because if you have any missing slates it will compromise your roof’s ability to keep water out. Look carefully for changes in the roof pattern, slate fragments on the floor or whole slates that have slipped into the guttering … these are all the normal signs.

These simple checks will help you get your house through the winter and if you do have any issues or concerns then you should always call a professional team like us at Roofspec SW. Bear in mind it’s always a lot less expensive to repair a roof where damage is spotted quickly rather than replacing a whole roof structure and damaged parts of the building later down the line.         

If you’re in any doubt when it comes to roofing work, then get in contact with us via this website or give us a call on 01752 914217 and remember, as we say at Roofspec SW… ‘the proof is in the roof’.