Home Maintenance: The Roof

We tend to ignore the roof until it begins to leak. Leaks are expensive and can cause extensive damage. Check your roof for possible damage every spring and fall and after heavy winds, hail, or an ice storm.

Go up into the attic on a rainy day and look for water drips or water stains. If you locate a water drop, trace it to its source. Look carefully to be sure you cannot see daylight anywhere through your roof.

When you are sure the roof is dry, climb up on it wearing rubber-soled shoes and check for missing shingles, loose, cracked or curled shingles, and "bald spots" on the shingles. Remember the sun does as much damage as wind, so look closely at the sunny slopes.

Give Your Roof a Checkup

Ridge shingles

A leak here may show up anywhere in the house.

Flashings

They should be free of rust and sealed with caulking.

Shingle

There should be no loose, curled, or missing shingles.

Gutters

They should be free of debris. Expect trouble if you find many loose granules from your roof in the gutter.

If you decide you have a major problem, the best thing to do is to call a professional roofer. Patching an old roof or trying to re-roof it yourself can be a costly mistake. Be realistic in your assessment of this job. Become familiar with roofing materials and the roofing vocabulary.

Roofing Materials

The life of your roof and its maintenance depend on the materials from which it is made. Some roofing materials wear away as they age; others remain strong but must be re-coated or maintained. Other roofing materials may last the life of the structure.

Asphalt shingles are the most common form of roofing, with more than 75 percent of all American homeowners using them. They are low in cost, resilient, and a good noise insulator.

Asphalt shingles are available in a variety of weights, colors, and patterns and are easy for the do-it-yourselfer. Most asphalt shingles have a Class C fire-resistance rating from Underwriters Laboratory.

Fiberglass shingles have a Class A fire rating and a life expectancy of 20 to 25 years. The installed price is about the same as for asphalt shingles. They are made of a fiberglass mat that is saturated with asphalt and covered with mineral granules.

The appearance of wood shingles and shakes is its selling point, but their insulative value is twice that of standard asphalt shingles. They last 15 to 30 years and are two to three times the cost of asphalt and fiberglass. They do burn easily, however.

Concrete tile, clay tile, and slate roofing are fireproof, expensive, heavy, and last a lifetime. If you replace an existing roof with one of these, you will probably have to reinforce the roof frame to accept the extra load.

Roofing Colors

If you are replacing a roof, consider the material and the color. A white roof reflects heat, while a dark roof absorbs it -- this affects heating and cooling costs. Also, consider the problem of mildew's growing and discoloring light-colored roofs in a climate with a high humidity level, such as Mississippi's.

Remember you also can create an illusion with the color of a roof.

Roofing Terms

You can communicate with a roofer more easily if you understand some of the more common roofing terms.

Deck

The structural base on which roofing material is laid.

Drip Edge

A protective metal or vinyl strip installed along eaves and rakes to facilitate the shedding of water.

Eave

The part of a roof that overhangs the wall.

Exposure

The portion of a roof tile or shingle that is exposed to the elements, the remainder being covered by overlap.

Flashing

Strips of metal or roofing material used to waterproof intersections and joints.

Gable

The end of a building that forms a vertical triangle where roof and wall meet.

Hip

Where opposing roof surfaces meet, forming two sloping ridges that run down from peak to eave.

Rake

The end of a roof from the ridge to the eave.

Ridge

The horizontal line along which two roof planes come together to form a peak.

Valley

The juncture that is formed where sloping roof surfaces meet.

Shingle Roofs

• A leaking roof
• Damaged or missing shingles (Caution: If in doubt, call a roofing specialist, especially for steep roofs and complicated repairs.)

• Two ladders (one for climbing to the roof and one for work on the roof)
• Replacement shingles
• Asphalt roofing cement
• Roofing nails
• Small pieces of sheet metal
• Claw hammer
• Hacksaw
• Small trowel

How To Repair Wood Shingles

• If the roof leaks, find the location of the leak, if possible, from inside.
• Place and secure the ladder.
• Examine the condition from the outside.
• If the shingle is cracked, it is better to repair a crack than to replace the shingle. If the crack is small (1/4 inch or less), pull out loose splinters so that only the large, solid pieces remain. Check the roofing material under the shingles to determine where the nails should go. Sometimes shingles are nailed to wood slats spaced 4 or 5 inches apart; sometimes they are nailed to wood sheathing.

After you remove the loose splinters, butt the solid pieces tightly together and nail the split shingle together with galvanized roofing nails. Do not drive the heads of the nails into the shingle and damage its surface!

Cover the crack fully with asphalt roofing cement. Apply a dab of cement over the nail heads.

If the crack is wide, add a sheet metal patch; to do this, drive a square piece of sheet metal up under the cracked shingle. Make sure the top of the sheet metal goes beyond the upper edge of the crack. Now complete the job as described for repairing a small crack.

If shingles are damaged beyond repair, replace them. This can be more tricky than repairing a cracked shingle.

Remove the damaged shingle. Using a screwdriver or chisel, cut the damaged shingle into small pieces that can be removed by pulling with your fingers.

Use a hacksaw blade to cut the nails flush with the wood slats or sheathing. Since shingles overlap, you may have to pry up the shingle above just enough to get at all the nails. Take care not to crack the good shingle. Measure the empty space and cut a replacement shingle to fit that space. Use a block of wood and hammer to drive the replacement shingle into place.

Nail the new shingle in place with galvanized roofing nails. Apply a dab of asphalt cement to cover the nail heads.

How To Repair Asphalt Shingles

Locate the damaged area and examine the condition. If the shingle does not need replacing, simply raise the damaged or torn shingle and apply an ample amount of asphalt cement to the underside. Now press the shingle firmly into place and nail it down with broadheaded, galvanized roofing nails. (Always remember to apply asphalt cement to the nail heads.)

If the shingle needs replacing, select a strip the same as the piece to be replaced. Asphalt roofing usually comes in strips. Some roofing is in single, separate shingles.

Raise the shingle above the damaged one and pull the nails from the damaged shingles with a claw hammer. If nails cannot be reached with a hammer, cut them off with a hacksaw.

Remove the damaged shingle and slip the new shingle into place. Nail the new shingle in place with broadhead, galvanized roofing nails. Place two nails to each tab; this means six nails to each full shingle strip. The shingle should be "blind nailed" (nails covered by the upper shingles).

Apply a dab of asphalt cement over the nail heads and then lower the shingles into place.

Publication 1555
Extension Service of Mississippi State University, cooperating with U.S. Department of Agriculture. Published in furtherance of Acts of Congress, May 8 and June 30, 1914. Ronald A. Brown, Director

Copyright by Mississippi State University. All rights reserved.

This document may be copied and distributed for nonprofit educational purposes provided that credit is given to the Mississippi State University Extension Service.