Minnesota winters come quickly and can be extremely harsh. Intelligent Design Corp can help you prepare for the season with a professional inspection of your commercial or residential roof to ensure it’s winter-ready.
Don’t wait for the freezing weather to deteriorate your roof; get prepared with our top care recommendations for managing the relentless snow and ice that can wreak havoc on your roofing system.
Contact a Roofing Company
Minnesota winters bring an average monthly snowfall of 8 to 20 inches. It is recommended you have your roof inspected annually by a professional roofer. Mitigate your risks by having your roof inspected before the winter season and attending to any maintenance, repairs, restorations, and replacements when necessary.
If your roof becomes compromised, you are risking serious property damage. Don’t wait until you notice roof damage before calling for help.
Watch For Red Flags
During the year, there are many indications your roof needs maintenance, repair, or replacement. If you notice any of the following warning signs, your roof needs repairs.
Contact one of our experienced roofing contractors as soon as possible:
- Water damage to your ceiling
- Missing shingles
- Large amounts of sediment in your gutters
- Growth of moss or algae
- Dips in your roof or bowed ceilings
Water damage inside is a sure sign your roof is already leaking, and you may have damaged flashing. Missing shingles can indicate a poorly installed roof and should be immediately replaced. A large amount of granules in your drainage system is typically a result of asphalt shingles wearing away.
Moss and algae can eat away at your roof and usually be washed away by a roofer. Dents and buckling are a sign you may have serious structural damage from heavy snow accumulation.
Find Out the Age of Your Roof
If your home is 15 years or older, you need to know if the roof has been replaced during that time. Knowing the age of your roof and what type of shingles you have can tell you if your home is in danger of a collapsing roof.
Materials used for roofing in the previous decades often had lifespans of only 15-20 years. If you are unsure of the age of your roof, contact a roofing contractor to schedule an inspection.
Clean Your Gutters
Quite a few exterior facets that are roof-adjacent, so to speak, have great influence over the health of your roof—and gutters are no exception. You need to clean these, at minimum, once before the cold sets in, though we recommend multiple times, as leaves don’t fall from the trees all at once.
Over time, the debris builds up, clogging the system and risking pooling that can deteriorate your entire foundation. Protecting your home during winter means checking and clearing the entire roofing and gutter system for loose items like stones, pine needles, leaves, and anything else accumulated on its surface because it will pay off.
Check Out Your Roofing Ventilation
Your roof isn’t necessarily airtight; many these days are made with vents that help moist air circulate through them, thus preventing damaging moisture build-up. If these vents are covered by insulation, warm air from your heated home gets trapped in your attic, resulting in water damage and mold formation.
All roof vents should be uncovered by insulation. If you’re unfamiliar with your attic’s pace and what it “should” look like as far as ventilation goes, don’t hesitate to call a roofing company to show you the ropes.
Stay on Top of Snow and Ice Build-Up
In the right environment, ice and snow can build up fast on your roof, becoming a dangerous situation. Worse yet, if the frozen sections melt, as they drain, they can refreeze and become ice dams, a massive headache to deal with.
Though Intelligent Design Corp is proud to offer ice dam removal, it’s best not to deal with these menaces in the first place because it’s a high-risk situation and can become a liability without the right training and equipment.
Intelligent Design Corp Can Help Protect Your Roof
If you have not had a recent inspection, now is the time to contact Intelligent Design Corp. We provide roofing services to residential and commercial properties in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota.
Our professional roofers can evaluate your roofing needs and specialize in ice dam removal, hail damage repair, and disaster restoration to get your home back to the best condition possible.
To schedule an inspection, call us at 763-315-0745 or message us on our contact page today.
