Your roof is constantly being hit with various weather elements, including high winds, thunderstorms and hailstorms, which can cause a lot of damage to your roof. If you have a shingle or tile roof, here is a look at some of the damage that high winds and hail can do to your roof:
Wind Damage
When a severe thunderstorm rolls through, there are often high winds. These high winds threaten the integrity of your roof.
- Shingle Roofs – Winds tend to lift up your shingles and break the seal beneath them. Once the storm has blown over, the shingles will fall back down and appear to be fine. However, over time, these areas where the shingles were damaged will begin to leak and cause even further damage.
- Tile Roofs – Tiles are often just decorative, yet there is a underlayment beneath the tiles that serves as a barrier to rain water. When the winds come, it can get beneath the tiles and cause them to wiggle. After the storm, they look just fine – just like the shingles. However, the wiggling can cause the nails that hold the tiles down to come up, which results in the underlayment becoming loose. This then allows water to seep through the nail holes, which results in a roof leak.
Hail Damage
In addition to wind, thunderstorms can often bring a bout of hail with them. This can also affect the structural integrity of your roof.
- Shingle Roofs – When the hail hits your shingles, it causes the granules to come off. Usually, this isn’t visible unless you get really close to the shingles. Often, a homeowner won’t see the degranulation and will only be seen by a professional roofer. When this occurs, though, the life expectancy of the shingles is shortened and the shingles overall efficiency is compromised.
- Tile Roofs – As a general rule, small pieces of hail will not do damage to your tiles. However, if the hail stones get larger than about two inches in diameter, they can cause small cracks or chips that can significantly compromise the overall integrity of your roof.
As you can see, it is very important that you have a professional inspect your roof after severe thunderstorm in your area. There are many things that you cannot see, but a trained eye will be able to detect with a simple inspection. Give us a call at C and K Roofing so that we can locate compromised areas of your roof from storm damage and repair them before it’s too late and more damage has occurred. (256) 326-4232