Cold Weather Roofing.
When you roof gets damaged and needs replacing its almost certain it will happen on a bad weather day. It makes more sense for a roof to gain a leak on a rainy day or for shingles to come loose on a windy night. Even if your roof becomes damaged on a nice day, you may not even notice till a bad weather day comes along,unless of course you do keep up with the maintenance on your roof during a regular bases.
If you find your self in a predicament that requires your roof repaired during a cold day there are things you need to watch out for, and if possible wait till its a calmer day out.
Installing shingles on a cold day is extremely dangerous, specially if there is ice or snow on the roof, you should try to avoid being on your roof at these times because the roof is very slippery due to the snow and ice, and as you can expect that will increase the chances of an serious injury from falling off the roof.
How ever if you must do this, the best advice I can give a home owner is to call a professional, but if you are willing to do it your self then here are some tips that may help you.
Make sure the equipment being used stays as dry as possible and always secured. Making sure landers are tied off and not placed on sheets of ice, using a harness rope to secure your self in case of a slip is always good to.
Make sure to remove the snow from your boots before going on the roof is always a good idea. Along with checking to see if the roof is safe to get on.
Removing the snow from the roof may seem like a smart thing, but if you scrape of the protective layering on the shingles themselves you can cause some serious problems to the roof at a later time.
This layer protects your roof from the elements of mother nature and losing it will allow for them to penetrate into your roof. The shingles will become damaged as the elements beat into the surface of them causing them to decay at a faster rate.
The protect surf also insure that water runs off of your roof, and not become collected on it.
Remember shingles are very delicate and brittle when frozen so any hard scraping may and will brake them causing leakage that will get under them and into your home.
There is a reason its so hard to get a roofer to come out in the winter, and its not because of the cold weather. Walking on a roof in the winter is near suicidal and should be avoided at all cost. But if you find yourself in this situation and can not get a professional to come out remember to try to replace the shingle by staying on the ladder at all times,its best to wait for a warm streak in the weather.
Remember leaks usually wont happen if the snow is staying frozen so wanting to get it done in a hurry in this case is not always the best thing to do, sometimes its better to take a hit in the wallet then risk your life.
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