A prairie winter is unforgiving on a roof that is already tired. Snow load, ice dams and the constant freeze and thaw turn a small problem in September into a much larger one by March.
W Contracting Roofing is a Saskatoon roofing company, and these are the things we look for on a roof before freeze-up.
Here are seven signs a Saskatoon roof needs attention before the snow flies, and what each one usually means.
1. Shingles that are missing, cracked or curling
After years of prairie sun and wind, asphalt shingles dry out, curl at the edges and go brittle. A few missing or lifted shingles leave the layer underneath exposed, and that is exactly where wind-driven snow works its way in. Curling also stops shingles from shedding water the way they are meant to, so it is worth acting on even before one blows off.
2. Granules collecting in your eavestroughs
The gritty, sand-like granules on a shingle are its sunscreen and its armour. When you find piles of them in the eavestroughs or washed out at the bottom of a downspout, the shingles are wearing thin and losing that protection. It is one of the earliest signs a roof is heading toward the end of its life, long before a leak shows up inside.
3. Dark stains or a sag on the ceiling
A brown ring on the ceiling, a soft damp patch, or a section of drywall that has started to sag all point to water that is already getting past the roof. Because water runs along the framing before it drips, the stain is rarely right under the leak, which is why it pays to have someone trace it back to the source rather than patch the drywall and hope.
4. Daylight, damp or frost in the attic
On a bright day, a pinhole of daylight through the attic means a matching hole in the roof. In winter that same gap shows up as frost on the underside of the sheathing, which melts during a thaw and drips onto the insulation. Damp insulation loses its R-value and stays wet, so a small gap quietly turns into a bigger heat-loss and moisture problem.
5. Cracked or lifting flashing around chimneys and vents
Most roof leaks do not start in the open field of shingles. They start at the flashing around a chimney, a vent stack or a skylight, where two surfaces meet. Flashing that has cracked, pulled loose or lost its sealant is a common culprit, and caught early it is often a straightforward fix rather than a major repair.
6. Bald spots or bruising after a hailstorm
Saskatoon takes real hail. After a storm, look for shingles that are dented, bruised, or knocked bare of their granules. Hail damage is not always obvious from the ground, and left alone it opens the shingle up to the first hard freeze. If a storm has come through recently, our guide to what to do after a hail storm walks through the next steps.
7. A roof going into winter past its age
Asphalt shingles in this climate generally last somewhere between twenty and thirty years, and the prairie extremes tend to push that toward the shorter end. If your roof is near that age and showing any of the signs above, another freeze-thaw winter is hard on it. It is far better to know where you stand before the snow than to find out during a January leak.
What to do if you spot any of these
Noticing one or two of these does not always mean a full replacement. Many are a targeted roof repair, such as new flashing, a section of shingles, or a resealed vent boot. The reason to look now is to catch the small fixes while they are still small, before winter turns them into an interior repair as well.
Check from the ground, not the roof. Most of these signs are visible with a pair of binoculars from the yard, from inside the attic with a flashlight, or at the eavestroughs. A wet or frosty roof is dangerous, and a free inspection is both safer and more thorough. If water is already coming in, our emergency roof leak steps cover the first hour.
Do not forget the eavestroughs while you are at it. Clogged or sagging eavestroughs, soffit and fascia send meltwater back under the shingles and feed the ice dams that cause winter leaks, so clearing them is part of getting a roof ready for the season.