It’s the first law of thermodynamics – heat rises. All the warmth from your radiators and fires will inevitably, at some point, end up at the top of your house. It happens with the crushing inevitability of death, taxes and computer errors.
You may not be able to change the laws of physics, but when you’re readying your home for the winter you can certainly take them into account. So, where better to start, when looking for ways to reduce your winter fuel bill, than with your roof.
Problems with the roof are often not obvious until they start causing further damage. You won’t notice leaks in sunny weather, and noticing that your roof has no snow on it while next door has a two-inch-thick coating of the white stuff is not necessarily the best way of finding out you’re haven’t got proper insulation. Because of this, it’s worth being vigilant and constantly keeping an eye out for potential issues with your roof.
Things to look out for include loss of heat from your house when the central heating turns off or discoloured patches on upstairs ceilings. If water has already entered the house, though, you may have a bigger job on your hands than you think. Before you reach that stage you could perform a cursory inspection of the roof yourself – stand back from the house, or get up a ladder, and take a look. Are there any shingles broken or missing? Is the roof straight, or does it warp? Are there trees or pants growing against the roof? Catching these issues in their early stages will save you huge amounts of money in the long run.
Another thing to keep on top of is clearing out your guttering. It takes surprisingly little to clog up the average guttering, and if water isn’t draining properly it could be seeping into your beams and causing problems with damp and mould.
Remember, it’s always best to find these problems before they become serious. A leaky roof, if not properly dealt with, could mean having to replace insulation, beams, wiring, heating pipes and ceilings. And the absolute worst time to have to cope with all this is in the middle of winter when it’s cold and wet enough already.
A well installed roof should last at least 20-25 years, but once you start having roof problems they’re likely to keep coming back. Getting your roof repaired is a notoriously troublesome business: you need to be wary of the cowboys who will sit on your roof for an hour and then demand cash payment for work they didn’t even do.
Luckily for you, when you get an instant online quote from roofquoter.co.uk, we’ll help you find up to three local roofers that you can trust. All the companies in our network are individually vetted and we receive all sorts of feedback from homeowners who use our service, so we can deal with any problems which arise.
Get checking now, and get fixing the roof while the sun is still shining.
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