How Snow and Ice Can Affect Your Roof

In Alaska, heavy snowfall and ice accumulation is par for the course during the winter months. While most Alaskans are used to this kind of extreme weather, it’s important to consider how your home will hold up to fluctuating temperatures, heavy snowfall and ice accumulation. Keep reading to learn more about how having snow on the roof in Alaska can affect your home and what you can do to protect your property.

Here are a few of the ways that snow on the roof can affect your home’s exterior:

• Ice dams: Ice dams form when snow accumulates on the roof, melts and then freezes again along the edge of the roof. While it’s normal for ice dams to form occasionally, especially during a particularly harsh winter, it can be very damaging for your roof when they form regularly throughout the winter. Over time, ice dams can lead to torn flashing and gutter damage that results in leaking and water damage to your home’s structure.
• Weight accumulation: Snowflakes might look light and fluffy when they fall from the sky, but snow that accumulates on roofs is very dense and can be quite heavy. All that extra weight puts added stress on your roofing materials and your home’s structure. In some cases, roofs can even cave in as a result of snow accumulation in the winter months. Even if your roof doesn’t sustain any major damage, the stress and weight on your roof can accelerate wear and tear and increase leaks and other types of roof damage.
• Freeze and thaw cycle: In many cases, it isn’t the extreme cold temperatures that cause damage to roofs, but the cycle of freezing and thawing that occurs as temperatures fluctuate. When rain falls on your roof, it seeps into cracks, and that water freezes and expands when temperatures dip. This can exacerbate existing cracks, cause new ones to form and lead to all kinds of damage to your roof.

Keeping your roof protected

It’s impossible to prevent all weather-related wear, tear and damage to your roof, but there are steps you can take to minimize damage. Start by improving your roof effectiveness in Alaska by investing in regular inspections from roofing professionals, investing in repairs and getting your roof replaced if needed. If you replace your roof, make sure to use materials that offer the best durability, longevity and resistance to the extreme weather that we experience here in Alaska. For example, metal roofing offers extensive benefits for property owners, and it’s a great choice for many types of buildings in our region.

Residential roofing materials

If you’re concerned about the condition of your roof after harsh winter weather and want to upgrade your roof with resilient materials, reach out to Superior Products Inc. We offer an extensive selection of residential and commercial metal roofing and exterior supplies. In addition to our high-quality materials and products, we are also happy to provide detailed design information and material lists to building contractors and self-installers who use our products. Give us a call to learn more about what we have to offer and to get started with an order.

Categorised in: Roofing Contractor

This post was written by Writer