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Your home’s roof is the first line of defense against moisture penetrating your Florida residence or place of business. Moisture that seeps into wood, shingles and flashing can, over time, put your roof at risk for leaks, formation of mold, and the headaches that come with fixing a big mess inside your home. The best remedy against moisture damage and leaks in the roof is preventing them in the first place. To do this, you’ve got to know how to spot the clues to the most common causes of roof leaks in your Hillsborough County home.
1. HEAT BUCKLING
If your home is not properly vented, then your roof is at risk for heat buckling. When a home is first built, regulations require that the attic is vented to prevent the build-up of intense heat. This is why some homes have vent fans. If something is blocking ventilation through your home, then hot air can’t escape. This causes the roof shingles to “bake’ from the hot air inside and the blazing Florida sun beating down on the roof.
Your Clue: The clue that your home has an issue with proper ventilation and heat bilking is curling shingles. You might also see slipped shingles as the heat deteriorates adhesive and the shingles fall out of place. These aren’t easy fixes. Your safest approach is to call a roofing professional like Legend Roofing to address the cause and solve the problem with your leaky roof.
2. IMPROPER SHINGLE SEALS
It matters not if your roof is brand new or if you’ve had it for 15 years. In construction, where two seams meet, the gap (seam, or joint) between them has to be properly sealed to prevent moisture from seeping in. Aging roof materials, improperly sealed seams or joints, allows rainwater and humidity to get beneath the shingles. This not only can cause slipped shingles, it can soften the lumber supporting the roof. Overtime, that wood will rot, pit, and if left unchecked, develop holes.
Your Clue: Check your attic and ventilation spaces around the home for wet spots, drips, and dampness. On a rainy day, go into these space with a flashlight and look for water to sparkle in the light. If you see it, mark the space as the location of an active leak so that you can point it out to a qualified roofing company for estimate.
3. CRACKS IN THE FLASHING
Flashing consists of thin pieces of sheet metal that are inserted beneath the shingles and typically has a rubber coating over the top. The job of flashing is to protect the joints. If the flashing deteriorates or becomes cracked, water finds its way through and into the house. Like most Florida homes, Hillsborough County homes are notorious for having issues with flashing because the heat of the sun, salt in the air, and high humidity can rapidly deteriorate the rubberized coating.
Your Clue: Identifying cracked flashing requires an on-the-roof estimate of the flashing itself. It’s best performed by a qualified roofer.
4. SHODDY SHINGLES
If your roof is constructed of low quality material, it will be more at risk for leaks and other damage. That being said, even roofs made of more durable and “wind resistant” materials won’t always stand up against the high winds and heavy downpours that come with hurricane season in Southwest Florida.
Your Clue: You don’t need to be Sherlock Holmes to identify this clue! You don’t even need to get up on the roof. Grab your binoculars and scan the roof for broken shingles, slipped shingles, and missing shingles. This is especially important after a storm. Just because you don’t see shingles have flown off the roof and landed on your front lawn doesn’t mean damage was not done.
5. IMPROPERLY INSTALLED SKYLIGHTS
We all love letting in a little extra light through the ceiling of our favorite sitting room. Those skylights are also a primary culprit for leaks. This is especially true if the skylights in your home were installed post-construction, rather than when the home was first built.
Your Clue: Again, this one is easy to spot because there will be water on the floor beneath the skylight and water stains on the ceiling around the skylight. Grab a bucket and call a qualified roofing professional to further inspect the leak and repair it.
Why not fix that skylight yourself? That skylight was installed by someone who supposedly knew what they were doing. To remedy the leak without being a risk for another one or for more damage to the roof, a qualified roofer needs to instal proper flashing and sealing—and may need to replace some of the shingles around the skylight.
6. CLOGGED OR LOOSE GUTTERS
If your home has gutters and you haven’t been getting up on a ladder to clean out the gutter after a storm or seasonally to check that animals haven’t built a home in the gutter or spouts, then you have a risk factor for water leaking into the home. The gutter has one job…direct rainfall away from your house. You will get these problems if the gutter is backed up with debris:
- damage to roofing materials
- wood rot
- bugs, including mosquitos, due to standing water
- risk for gutters to fall off due to excess weight from wet debris
Your Clue: The gutters may be loose or have fallen off—that’s obvious. You may see birds and buzzing insects gathering about your roof. Birds or rodents may be making a chatter behind the walls. Also, you may notice moisture seeping through the walls or ceiling. Installing a new gutter is a job for a roofing expert, like Legend Roofing, which is familiar with roof installation methods and gutter styles that are appropriate for your home.
7. CRACKED VENTS
This small pipes that stick up from your roof are vents. The job of roof vents is to give moist and hot air an escape from inside the house. They also require proper sealing using flashing and a tight-fitting rubber boot placed over the area with the pipe emerges from the roof. This flashing can break under intense weather conditions such as storms, high wind, and it can decay from heat and salt in the air.
Your Clue: This one may be trickier to identify as the source of a leak. Even with binoculars it can be hard to see around the vent pipe. The fix also requires you to be on the roof. As with most roofing problems, the solution for this one is to hire a licensed and insured roofer with a trustworthy reputation.
8. MOLD GROWTH
Mold and algae growth on a roof is more common inside homes that have been neglected. However, since mold issue are an insidious, “hidden problem,” it is worth mentioning here. If mold is growing under, between, or within roofing materials, enough of it could cause shingles to weaken and crack or for sealant to deteriorate. Although algae won’t damage the roof the way some types of toxic mold can, it looks terrible and detracts from a home’s curb appeal.
Your Clue: You won’t see this problem from the ground or with binoculars until the mold growth is so bad that it is all over the roof. The best way to catch it is to have a preventive roof estimate by a qualified roofing company.
YOUR LUTZ AREA ROOFER
Legend Roofing is a family-owned, professional roofing installation, repair and estimate company. Licensed, insured, and bonded, Legend Roofing specializes in providing affordable, effective, and lasting residential and commercial roofing solutions for customers in Hillsborough County.
Resources
“The 10 Most Common Causes of Roof Leaks.”MyMove.com
“Six Risks You Should Know Before Putting Skylights on Your Roof.”phpsd.com