As the winter months approach, we await the oncoming snow storms that are so frequent during November through April. Every year when the snow comes, it brings an interruption to normal schedules, slick roads, and a greater chance of injury.
Among other types of destruction that come with these snow storms, there’s the damage that a snow storm can do to your home. This isn’t just the usual damage that can come from extreme cold weather, things like the bursting of pipes due to water freezing. Snow can cause other damage to your home as well.
Most notably, in heavy snow, or heavy snow with wind as well, damage to your roof may occur.
What Roof Damage Can Occur Because of Snow?
What can snow do to your roof? Well, to begin with, if you have dead trees in your yard, or trees that are dying, you may find that a heavy blanket of show can cause branches and limbs to fall off trees. If those trees are near to your home and your roof, you may end up with a tree limb damaging a good portion of your roof.
The roof is not meant to hold infinite amounts of weight. In fact, if you look at the construction of the roof, you will notice that it seems like the design’s purpose is more to shape the roof than to be a load-bearing part of your home, with a few exceptions.
This isn’t to say that your roof can’t hold weight on it at all; it can handle, for example, a couple of grown men walking on it when they first put shingles on the roof, and so long as it remains in good condition, it can hold a reasonable amount of weight.
The problem with snow is that it is much heavier than it looks. Worse still, it tends to pile on, and getting the snow off of a roof is a difficult process for anyone without a heated roof. When too much snow piles up, it can cause the roof to collapse.
Just as worrying is water runoff from the roof. As the snow melts, the water slides down the roof and into the gutters. As this happens, there’s a chance that the water can pool in places when the natural path through the gutter is inaccessible due to debris or ice, and when this happens, that water goes somewhere else. In some cases, it can even end up leaking into the home through the weak points in your gutters.
If you have any concern that your roof will not stand up to the snow this winter, do not hesitate to contact the qualified Littleton roofers at National Home Improvement for a roof inspection. In cases like this, an ounce of prevention truly is worth a pound of cure, and your wallet and roof will thank you for your forethought.
