How East Texas Weather Affects Roof Lifespan
There are so many wonderful and beautiful things about living in East Texas. The piney woods, freshwater lakes, and proximity to both small towns and bigger city opportunities make it an ideal location for building a life.
While weather in East Texas is beautiful most of the time, it can also come with a lot of challenges.
East Texas is known for both big storms and a humid climate—two weather phenomenon that are very hard on roofs. In addition, summer sun can be really intense and UV rays can degrade roofing materials over time. If you have a shingle roof, you may have already experienced how Texas weather affects your roof.
Storm Damage and Immediate Risks
If you’ve been through a major rainstorm or tornado recently, your roof may have sustained wind roof damage, hail damage, have missing shingles, or other storm-related issues. If this is the case, it’s important to be in touch with a local roofing company in East Texas such as Steele Roofing so that you can get help with emergency roof tarping, emergency roof repairs, have a storm damage roof inspection, or get storm restoration services.
Maybe you just need a roof leak fixed, gutters put back up, or a roof cleaning. Damage to your roof isn’t always immediately noticeable, so if your home has gone through a major storm, it’s important to have a professional roof inspection performed by an experienced roofing contractor.
Falling branches or even trees can cause a significant amount of roof damage. If this is the case, it’s better to play it safe and contact an East Texas roofing company who offers roof tarping services to make sure your home’s interior and your possessions and valuables don’t get damaged.
Wind Damage Isn’t Always Obvious
East Texas can experience incredibly high winds—winds that could tear up shingles and even pieces of your roofing materials. This type of storm damage is obvious, and most people know it’s important to fix it as soon as possible.
However, high winds can also loosen shingles over time, creating weak sections where moisture can enter and cause damage. Scheduling regular roof maintenance can help you catch problems with your roof that might lead to expensive repairs or even the necessity of a roof replacement.
How Rain and Moisture Cause Long-Term Damage
Rainwater is one of the biggest culprits of damage to your roof. It’s not always the immediate rainstorm that causes the roof damage (although that can be true too).
It’s often a slow progression of moisture-related damage that majorly affects your roof and can lead to the need for big repairs or even the necessity of a new roof.
East Texas experiences both the fallout from hurricanes on the coast and major rain and flooding from large storms and tornadoes. Roofs are built to protect your home. And that also means they take the brunt of any weather coming at your home.
This is especially true over time, and certain sections that aren’t as strong as others can start to degrade, causing water to work its’ way into small cracks. The longer water is allowed to enter, the more damage your roof, home, possessions, and even the inhabitants of the home may sustain.
Unaddressed roof leaks can cause your home’s building materials to rot and degrade. Over time, this can even impact the structural integrity of your home.
The more damage to your home’s structure, the more difficult and expensive the repairs may be. Prolonged leaks can cause aesthetic damage as water stains develop on wood, drywall, molding, and floors.
Humidity and Mold Growth
If moisture continues to accumulate from a roof leak, you might develop a major mold/mildew problem. East Texas is a very humid environment. Anywhere water is allowed to enter a home risks mold and mildew growth. Not only can this impact your home’s structure—it can also affect the health of people within your home.
Mold and mildew grow and spread rapidly. This is another reason it’s necessary to have regular roof maintenance performed by a professional and experienced roofing company. Oftentimes the mold and mildew grow in places where you can’t see or don’t check often—attics, basements, crawl spaces, etc. You might not know about a mold issue until it’s caused major damage and you’re researching the cost of a new roof.
Temperature Swings and Material Wear
While East Texas might usually be known for its’ hot, humid weather, winters can have some really cold days. These abrupt changes in temperature can greatly impact your roof.
When temperature fluctuations happen, roofing materials both contract and expand. All this movement over time causes your roofing materials to be compromised. The problems can be difficult to see from the ground and can go unnoticed for months or even years if you don’t have regularly scheduled seasonal roofing maintenance done by a professional East Texas roofer.
Protecting Your Roof Long-Term
While the weather in East Texas isn’t always great for the lifespan of your roof, the good news is that you can do a lot to extend your roof’s lifespan by working with a professional, experienced Texas roofing company and having regularly scheduled maintenance.
