Before you purchase a house, it can be easy to overlook the hidden costs of being a homeowner and take certain things for granted — like a functioning roof.
When you own a home, it means that you’ve signed up for a lifelong Whack-a-Mole game of maintenance and repair work.
Whether it’s due to previous poor workmanship, poor ventilation, storm damage or simply the age of the materials used, if you own a house long enough, eventually it’s going to need roof work.
According to Warren Knox, owner of Knox Roofing in Scotts Valley, the average life expectancy of a new roof, if maintained properly, is roughly 25 years. While he has seen a few last as many as 40 years, he stressed that it is incredibly rare.
The key to making a roof last, Knox said, is to not delay maintenance.
“Don’t expect a roof to run by itself,” he said.
Knox advised homeowners to take a proactive and preventative approach toward maintaining a roof, and offered the following tips:
n Frequently clean rain gutters and downspouts to keep them free of debris that can lead to rot.
**Inspect metal flashing installed around chimneys and pipes for damage.
**Have your roof professionally inspected every five years.
**Keep an eye out for out-of-place nails, as this is an indicator of poor workmanship, which can lead to premature roof decay.
**When possible, use fire-resistant materials to build a roof. “A lot of insurance companies will cancel your insurance if you don’t have a fire-resistant roof,” he said.
**Tread carefully when walking on any roof to avoid causing damage.
**Don’t wait for a problem to become an emergency.
The summer months are typically the busiest time of the year for Knox and his company, particularly the end of summer and early autumn months, when winter storms are looming again.
“People get back from vacation, send the kids back to school, realize it’s almost winter and say ‘Oh, that’s right, the roof was leaking last winter,’” he said.
Knox warned against waiting too long to replace an old roof and making too many quick patches, saying that it is typically more cost-effective to replace a roof entirely once than to battle time and the elements with haphazard fixes.
“Why would you put a new transmission in a beat-up car, when you ought to just be replacing it?” Knox said.
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