Preparing Your Home for Winter

New York winters can be harsh. In order to survive through the rain, wind and snow without significant damage, it’s important to make preventative repairs to the roof, gutters and siding before the storms start. Proper drainage and insulation is essential for maintaining the quality of your home and ensuring that your family can stay comfortable during the winter. Even though it is October, it is not too late to get some repairs in before the bigger storms start to roll into the city.

Roofing – the roof is the most important part of protecting your home from weather. Leaks during storms can cause a significant amount of damage to the interior of the home and can end up costing a lot more money than replacing and repairing the roof would. A Real Advantage Inc. are experts at roofing and they specialize in asphalt shingles, slate and tile and metal roofs. There’s no reason to delay when it comes to protecting your home.

Gutters – a proper and clear gutter system is essential for drainage during storms. Backed up gutters and improper water management can cause significant damage to the home during storms, meaning big and unnecessary costs in the long run. Let A Real Advantage construction improve your drainage, remove leaks and debris, clean downspouts, install new gutters and make adjustments to old gutters. You’ll thank yourself on a rainy day when all the water is drained to safe areas that can’t cause damage to your valuable home.

The Importance of Roof Repair

The roof is one of the most important components of the structure of a home. Despite this fact, many people neglect to get their roofs repaired until it is too late for a variety of reasons. The roof is easy to ignore from the inside of the home unless there are leaks, and people rarely climb up on the top of their houses to examine if there are any problems. Roof repair can seem intimidating, but it’s important to get any problems fixed before leaks cause any significant damage to the rest of the home.

Roofs can get damaged for any number of reasons. Lack of maintenance is one of the main causes, as fixing problems early on is essential to preventing the spread damage and keeping the repair cheap and easy. Weather also significantly damages roofing, so this is especially important for homes in New York, as the winters here can be very harsh.  Wind can cause damage, especially winds that exceed 50 mph as they can carry debris that the roof is not designed to collide with.

Some roof problems come from improper design. Weak roof structures can deflect excessively under load, causing splitting of the roof membrane. Inadequate roof slope, sagging roof structure, or insufficient number of drains or clogged gutters can result in ponding water. Inadequate design for expansion and contraction at changes in deck material can cause membrane splits. Incompatible roof materials can also cause damage due to chemical conflicts.