It’s the weekend, you didn’t really have anything planned besides watching the game on Sunday, and out of the blue, you notice a leak in your roof! It must have just started, after all, it rained quite a bit last night. Suddenly you’re stumped by the million-dollar question:
Should you make a quick trip to the Home Depot and fix it yourself? After all, it should be easy to find the problem and repair your roof. Or, should you call a professional roofer who is going to come out and tell you that your roof needs a two-thousand dollar roof repair?
In this article, we are going to briefly discuss the subject of DIY roofing.
To start with let’s answer the question:
Should you fix your own roof?
The short answer to this question is yes.
However, the longer answer to this question tends more towards calling a professional roofer to check out your roof’s damage.
In essence, a home protects you from outside elements and provides safety and comfort for you and your family. Like your walls, your roof is one of the most important parts of your home.
Unlike most DIY home improvement projects, working on your roof differs in a few ways:
- Before repairing your roof, it is important to find the exact source of the damage. Often, a roof’s damage will start in one place but manifest itself somewhere else where water finds a weak spot. Only repairing where the damage is visible can sometimes completely miss the actual cause of the problem.
- Any roof repairs must be done exactly right or not only will the same problem persist but it can sometimes cause further damage to the area that was repaired.
- Climbing on top of your roof is a dangerous job. Professional roofers have been trained to follow all necessary safety precautions and also have a lot of practice walking on steep and slanted rooftops. Doing it yourself could expose you to danger.
As you can see, repairing your own roof is not quite the same as replacing a toilet or installing a new closet system at home.
But having covered the differences between normal DIY home improvement work and DIY roofing, let’s take a look at when DIY roofing IS an option.
To start with, let’s talk about preventing roof damage since if you take good care of your roof then you may never have to do a DIY roof repair.
At the start of every new season, you should clean your roof. This can be done by cleaning the drains and the top of your roof. Your roof can be cleaned off with a hose and to help you with cleaning your drain and gutters, we’ve written an article that you can check out: How To Clean Your Roof’s Drain & Gutter System.
In addition to routine cleaning, you should also conduct an annual or semi-annual roof inspection to ensure that your roof is fine. To help you with this, we’ve created a downloadable DIY roof inspection checklist.
In Florida, one of the most common causes of roof damage is fallen branches or trees. Due to Florida’s climate and weather, and heavy tree branches above your roof should be cut and trimmed to ensure that they do not fall on top of your roof in the event of heavy rain or wind.
Now that we’ve talked a bit about some things you can do to maintain your roof in good shape, let’s discuss when you should or can fix your own roof.
Unlike most DIY home improvement projects, fixing your own roof is dangerous and complicated. If you are generally good with DIY home improvement and are familiar with construction work in general and have a good success rate with projects at home, we suggest that you study how to repair the specific roof problem you are having and when you are clear on what to do, that you can go ahead and repair your own roof.
If you are not generally successful with DIY home improvement projects or just not very experienced at it, we suggest that you call a professional roofer.
In MANY cases, spotted early your roof repair will not take long nor will it cost a lot of money. No1 Home Roofing even offers free onsite roof inspections to help detect the source of your roof’s damage and give you an obligation free estimate on how to fix it.
Article by:
Robert Shingletop
Senior Editor, No1 Home Roofing
sales@no1homeroofing.com