Your Roof Would Like a Word Before Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving gets a lot of attention.

The turkey gets checked every fifteen minutes. The thermostat gets adjusted because somebody is hot and somebody else is freezing. The guest bathroom gets cleaned like the governor is coming over. Somebody is blowing leaves off the driveway at 8:00 that morning.

Meanwhile, your roof is sitting up there thinking:

“Interesting. So nobody’s going to check on me?”

Fair point.

Your roof may be the least glamorous part of your holiday preparations, but it is also the thing standing between your Thanksgiving gathering and Alabama weather. And unlike that one relative who shows up empty-handed, your roof has been working all year.

So before the holidays get rolling, give it a little attention.

First: Look Up

You do not have to climb onto the roof to notice that something looks different.

Stand back from the house and actually look at it. Are there shingles that appear lifted, crooked or missing? Does one area look different from the rest? Can you see debris collecting in valleys? Are gutters sagging or overflowing?

Sometimes homeowners live underneath a roofing problem for months because, frankly, nobody spends much time staring at their own roof.

Until there is a brown spot on the ceiling.

Then everybody looks up.

Second: Pay Attention to What the Trees Left Behind

Fall in Tuscaloosa is beautiful.

It is also very good at putting half a tree on your house.

Leaves, pine straw, sticks and other debris can collect in valleys, around flashing and inside gutters. When water cannot move where it is supposed to move, it starts looking for somewhere else to go.

Water is incredibly persistent. It does not need a giant hole. It needs an opportunity.

Clearing debris and making sure water has a clean path away from the roof is one of those simple things that can prevent a much more interesting conversation later.

And in roofing, “interesting” usually costs money.

Third: Don’t Wait for the Drip

This is probably the biggest misconception we see.

“My roof isn’t leaking, so it must be fine.”

Maybe.

But a visible interior leak is often one of the later signs of a roofing problem, not the first. Storm damage, deteriorated materials, damaged flashing and other vulnerabilities can exist long before water finally introduces itself inside your house.

That is why a professional roof inspection can be valuable even when everything appears normal from the ground.

At D&E Roofing & Construction, inspections are a major part of what we do because identifying a small issue early can sometimes keep it from becoming a much larger repair later.

And If You Find Damage, Don’t Panic

Roofing problems have a way of making homeowners immediately imagine the worst.

Take it one step at a time.

Get the roof properly evaluated. Understand what is damaged. Ask questions. If storm damage is involved, understand your insurance options before making assumptions about what is or is not covered.

A good roofing contractor should be able to explain what they see in plain English.

That matters to us at D&E.

We are a local Tuscaloosa company, we are GAF Certified™, and we believe homeowners should understand what is happening over their heads without needing a roofing dictionary to follow the conversation.

So while you are checking the turkey, cleaning the house and figuring out where twelve people are going to sit around a table built for eight, take sixty seconds and look up. Your roof has been hosting everybody all year.

The least you can do is see how it’s doing.