Seasons come and go, but what bothers homeowners is the weather because weather causes wear and tear on the homes, no matter what the sky is doing. It is impossible to protect your home from getting deteriorated as a result of weather changes. If you live in an area where it remains sunny for most of the year, even then, the exterior of your house will fade, especially the roof, whose quality will be deteriorated with continuous exposure to the sunlight. 

But, things don’t get better when the sun is replaced with clouds and it begins to rain because the rain leads to leaks and floods. You will be surprised to know that even winds can rip the shingles off the roof with impunity. If you are battening down the hatches for a hurricane or tornado, then you must pay special attention to the roof of your house, as it will take the maximum onslaught that Mother Nature will bring down.

Batten Down Your Hatches

This is an old term used by sailors to alarm their fleet about an impending storm. The term used to give an idea to others that it’s time to close all the doors, trapdoors, and portholes to prevent water from hitting the sides, sloshing up over the deck or rain that pours from the sky to enter inside the ship. For homes, the phrase means that you need to secure every door and window tightly. You need to double-check the weather stripping and if it is not in the right condition, then you must replace it.

What makes doors and windows important for the protection of your roof?

There is a thing called ‘Air Pressure’, so when you have a door or window opened at the time of a hurricane or tornado, then it can increase the air pressure in your home, causing an upward push to the roof. As a result, the stability of the roof is reduced significantly. To avoid this, you need to keep the doors and windows closed during hurricanes and tornadoes.

Clean your gutters and downspouts

Hurricanes and tornadoes bring a huge amount of dirt and debris, which fill and clog the gutters. This leads to overflowing of the precipitation management system, hence resulting in dangerous puddles sitting on the edge of the roof of your house with water spilling out over the sides of gutters. The reason why you have gutters and downspouts is to channel the water away from the home to minimize the wear and tear on the roof along with pervasive water damage. Not just water, but the gutters deal with another problem, which is the leaves and sticks getting stuck inside them, causing their weight to rise, thus increasing the chances of breaking away from the roof and falling.

If you really want to protect your roof, gutters, and siding from the strong impacts of hurricanes or tornadoes, then you need to ensure that the gutters are clear and the downspouts are unclogged as soon as you hear the first news breaking about the arrival of a hurricane or tornado.

Trim Back Branches

Hurricanes and tornadoes accompany sharp winds and large hailstones, which can inflict great damage to your roof, but one thing that is even more damaging is the dropping of tree branches on the roof, which can crack your roof supports, shatter tiles and cost you hundreds and thousands of dollars in repairs. To prevent that from happening, you need to carefully trim the trees in your surroundings, the ones whose branches you think can reach your roof. Of course, that doesn’t fully eliminate the possibility of having large and heavy tree branches because winds blow at great speeds during hurricanes and tornadoes, so branches can be blown away from trees across your neighborhood, but that is not in your hands to avoid. The least you can do is trim the branches of trees that are planted in your property.

Get a professional consultation

If you have just constructed a new house or revamped your house, especially the roof, then you must get in touch with a professional to seek guidance as to how you can prepare your roof for hurricanes or tornadoes. A professional and experienced roofing expert like Southern Premier Roofing will definitely have some useful advice that can help you protect the roof of your house. You can easily find an expert on the internet, so don’t worry about it and focus on preparing your roof against any upcoming natural disaster.