When it comes to residential roofs, they serve a couple of key purposes, like protecting the home and also increasing the home’s value. The better the roof, the more the house is worth. With commercial roofing, however, you’re dealing with much more. Roofs on commercial properties not only need to be protective, but they also need to be incredibly maintained and up to code with government ordinances, fire codes, and more.
While many people might want to stay nestled up next to that log-burning fire roasting their chestnuts when the winter rolls around, this is actually the best time of the year for business owners to check their roofs and to perform regular maintenance. Sure, no one wants to brave that cold weather, but it’s very beneficial for people to use this time of year to check out how well their roofs are holding up, and here are a few good reasons why.
5 Reasons to Always Check Commercial Roofing in the Wintertime
Because It’s Cold!
Commercial businesses aren’t typically closed for the winter. If they’re in a building, they’re open for business, and thus they need to be protected. Any sorts of cracks or holes in these roofs will cause heating systems to under perform greatly and let the chill in. Plus, any issue with a commercial roof in the winter is just going to get much worse as the weather gets worse. Cracks will expand. Holes will increase. Before you know it, it’s gone from simply needing a repair to needing a replacement.
Structural Integrity is Vital
One thing everyone should realize is that snow and ice are incredibly heavy stuff. Water, in general, is heavy, a lot heavier than people typically think, and so that weight of ice and snow up there on a roof can start to cause some immense damage, even structural damage. A roof that isn’t sound could end up with a few feet of snow and ice on it, adding tons of weight, and a catastrophic collapse could very well happen. It’s always important to check these things out in the winter.
Ensuring Animals Aren’t Nesting
Animals need a place to go in the winter. There’s a reason you don’t see many squirrels out running on those power lines when it’s cold outside. They’re nestled up somewhere, safe and warm. Unfortunately, a place that a lot of animals find that is safe and warm is inside of your roof. They can get in through cracks, start to nest inside of the structure, and cause all sorts of different problems. They can spread feces and disease, chew through wiring, or even attack people. Ensuring everything is closed up so animals can’t nest is very important.
Gutters and Ducts Are a Mess
Prior to the winter and everything freezing, everything starts to die out and you get nothing but dead leaves, broken branches, and all sorts of other rubbish that piles up everywhere. One of the places that this stuff loves to pile up is in gutters. Yes, most commercial properties have gutters, just like residential properties, and they also have vents for plumbing and ventilation. Allowing these things to clog up could cause all manner of issues, so the winter is the ideal time to check and do a little pre-spring cleaning.
It’s Easier to Get Repairs Done
In locations where it’s cold in the winter, few people are actually checking to see if their roofs need repair. This means that quality roofing companies have much less of a workload to get through. By extension, this means that those repairs you need for your commercial roofing can happen a lot quicker in the winter than they would in the summer, and you may even end up getting a discount because of it. Regardless of what might be in it for you in that respect, that roof cannot wait if it’s damaged and the winter settles in. You will end up with much larger problems to worry about.
It might be cold, it might be slippery, but when the winter rolls around, it’s very important that you get up and check out that roof of your commercial building. You cannot afford to wait until the spring if there are actual issues.