How Does A Roofing System Work?

The roof is the only thing protecting your home and your property from the elements of rain, snow, and sun. It is a most essential part of a dwelling, after all you never hear someone say, “I have good walls between me.” (Although we're experts in walls as well) they say, “I have a good roof over my head.” But many homeowners don’t know how a roof works and when it’s time to have it looked at. Let’s take a look at how a roofing system works.

First of all, roofing is known as the exposed surface material that is applied to the exterior top of a building. It serves two purposes, it provides a weather tight barrier of protection against aforementioned elements, and it enhances the appearance of a structure. There are several types of roofing systems today, but the most popular system out there is asphalt shingles. Asphalt shingles were invented back in the late 1800’s; at that time slate shingles were the norm of roofing systems, and in a perfect world they would still be the popular choice due their incredibly long life expectancy, but the cons outweighed the pros when comparing to the new-at-the-time asphalt shingles. Slate shingles were heavy, expensive, and weather exposed nails would rust easily, but asphalt shingles solved all those problems at the cost of lower durability lasting somewhere between 20 and 50 years.

Asphalt is a residue left from evaporated petroleum or crude oil that is used several things include roads and waterproofing roofing material. Today, nearly 80 percent of fall residential structures in North America have roofs covered with some sort of asphalt material. If you’re indoors, you’re probably reading this articles with some kind of asphalt over your head. The biggest flaw for asphalt is that it doesn't hold up very well to direct UV rays by itself, that’s where granules come in. Granules are small colored stone chips that are stuck to the forefront of a shingle to protect asphalt from the heat of the sun.Unfortunately time and weather will take a toll on the granules. Over time they wear down, heavy hail will knock granules off, heavy wind cause shingle to flap about, all these things contribute to granules coming off the shingles and rain will accelerate the loss of granules. This doesn't happen all at once, sometimes it can take as much as six months after a hail storm for the granule erosion to cause problems. Once enough granule is off, the asphalt is exposed and the UV rays of the sun will evaporate the shingle exposing the wood under the shingles. When this happens rain can get to the gaps and nail holes causing leaks in the ceiling.

The best way to stop leaks from happening is to take a look for any signs of granule loss on your roof, but 90 percent of roof damage typically can’t be seen from the ground. That’s where a roofing contractor comes in, a roof inspection consists of a trained specialist going up on the roof to look for problems in it, and from there the contractor will typically work with the home insurance company to get the problems fixed.