Maintaining your home's roof

• Want to inspect a roof and don't want to climb up there to do it? Get a good pair of binoculars. Then you can-stand back and take a close look. Split shingles, shingles with holes, cupped and curling shingles, and other damaged shingles will be as easy to spot as if you were standing right there next to them. Streaking or discoloration can cause a good roof to look worn and tattered. So, for appearance sake, use the following universal roof cleaning formula when your roof gets dirty. The concoction also gets rid of mildew or moss on your roof, which can cause extensive damage if left unattended.
Begin cleaning the lower portion of the roof, moving up as you clean each lower section. That way, you always stand on dry ground and reduce the chance of slipping. If the cleaner begins to dry out, spray on a bit more. Use the broom to scrub the area as needed to get it clean. Rinse the cleaned area with fresh water.

Repeat the process until the roof is clean.
A wood shake or shingle roof covered with pine needles, leaves, moss, and other debris may retain water, causing the shingles to rot prematurely. An annual sweeping with a stiff bristle broom cuts down on fungus damage by enhancing proper watershed. Cleaning to promote proper watershed is important with other types of roofs, as well. Built-up debris can create a dam which can cause a leak.

Roof flashing creates a watertight connection where the roof is adjoined by a wall, as when a first-story roof connects to a second-story wall. Roof flashing also creates watertight connections between the roofing and items that penetrate it, including plumbing pipes, furnace flues, skylights, and chimneys.

The metal trim around the chimney -- where the chimney intersects the roof -- is a type of roof flashing. The metal trim surrounding a skylight where the base of the skylight connects to the roof is another type of roof flashing. The metal plate laced between the shingles at a pipe penetration is yet another example of roof flashing. All roofs have roof flashing. Although some flashing is made of lead, most are made of galvanized sheet metal or aluminum. And that means rust or corrosion. And rust or corrosion means leaks.

To prevent flashing from leaking, you need to keep them from rusting. The application of a good coat of paint every few years generally does the trick. After you apply the first coat of paint to your flashing, maintaining it is easy. You want to focus on removing any rust that appears and keeping the paint in good condition

Intense ultra-violet rays of the sun can cause damage to your roof, drying shingles out and causing them to split and literally burning holes into others. The shingles can lose virtually all of their moisture (water and natural resins) in as little as five years. This can result in cupping, curling, splitting, and an almost certain early demise. However, with proper care and maintenance, you could double or even triple the life of a wood shake or shingle roof.

Super-cleaning your roof The roof preservation process begins with a much more thorough cleaning than the general roof cleaning technique described earlier. Roof preservation requires a super-cleaning that completely exposes all the pores of the wood. Then, later in the process, the preservative can easily penetrate deeply and completely into each and every pore. This super-cleaning also cuts through the grime and makes your wood shake or shingled roof look almost as good as new.

We recommend a pressure washer for super-cleaning a roof. This small device converts water supplied from a garden hose to a high-pressure mix of forced air and water. This mixture comes through the hose with enough force to cut through soft wood. You can get a power washer from a tool rental place -- and some paint stores -- for about $50 to $75 a day.

When using the pressure washer, hold the spray tip approximately 8 to 12 inches from the roof's surface while working backwards from the lowest part of the roof up to the highest part. Never stand downhill of your work. You can very easily slip on the wet surface.

• Most folks are pretty conscientious about maintaining the exterior walls of their homes. On just about any day during good weather, you can drive through a neighborhood and find the sides of at least one home under siege by painters. But rarely do you see anyone on the roof of a home unless the roof is being replaced. For some reason, people just don't pay as much attention to their roofs, which we think is a mistake.

The whole idea of maintenance is to ensure longevity, reduce costs, and improve value. We think this concept should apply to the roof in the same way it does to the walls. In fact, we like to think of the roof as the fifth wall of the home that should be maintained with the same regularity as the walls that support it. With proper care and maintenance, a roof can outlast its warranty without leaking a drop or suffering any ugly damage

Replacing damaged shingles- After super-cleaning the wood roof, wait until it dries, and then follow these steps to replace any damaged shingles:

With the blade of a hack saw, cut the nails anchoring a damaged shingle and carefully slip it out.

Attempting to pry nails loose or pull a shingle out may damage surrounding shingles and make it more difficult to install the new one.
Use the shingle you just removed as a pattern to custom cut a replacement.
Slip the new shingle up and under the building paper until the butt end (the fat end) is within 1-inch of the adjacent ends.

Toenail (nail at an angle) two barbed roofing nails as high up as possible without damaging the butt end of the overlapping shingle.

Finish the repair by placing a wood block against the butt end of the new shingle and striking the block firmly with a hammer. Drive the shingle until it aligns with the surrounding shingles.

Applying a preservative - The preservative restores the natural oils to the wood fibers, safeguards the roof from fungus and rot, and protects the roof from the harmful ultraviolet rays of the sun.

You see both oil-base and water-base preservatives at the stores. We prefer the oil-base type because it penetrates deeper, combats weather stress better, and lasts longer.

Non-pigmented preservatives can have pigments added to improve ultra-violet protection. The pigment actually masks the sun's ultraviolet rays preventing them from damaging the wood. The pigment also blends together, into one color, the older shingles and the new ones that were used to make patches.

Although you can apply preservative with a garden-type pump sprayer, the process can be done more professionally and in less time by using an airless paint sprayer. You can rent one in the same fashion as the pressure washer and for about the same cost. The process really is simple. Just spray the oil onto the roof. When the surface becomes shiny, stop spraying in that area and move on.

Apply preservative when there is no breeze and the air is still, ensuring that the majority of the product ends up on the roof and not on the neighbors' new car. Work backwards from the low end to the high side being careful not to walk on an already treated area which could be slippery.