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How Weather Affects Your Roof

Hail hitting asphalt shingle roof

Your home’s roof is one of the most important pieces of your home’s exterior. It helps to provide your home with protection from the elements, acting as the umbrella of your home. Considering that it is exposed to the elements on a daily basis, it should come as no surprise that most weather has a significant effect on your home’s roof. If you’re interested in learning more about our how inclement weather can affect your home’s roof, keep reading below for more information about the effect that weather can have on your roof!

Rain

Perhaps the most common weather condition that effects roofs is rain. No other kind of weather short of a hurricane or tornado has the damage potential of a rainstorm when it comes to your roof. One small leak in your roof can quickly lead to expensive repairs, as water trickles in. You should have your roof inspected at least once per year, after the winter, to ensure no moisture problems have materialized.

Snow

Another weather condition that can end up causing significant damage is snow. The danger with snow is two-fold; it can cause damage in a couple of different ways. First of all, if there has been significant snowfall that year, the weight of the snow on your roof can cause damage.

However, the more concerning and oftentimes damaging roof issue that arises with snowy roofs is ice dams. Ice dams are formed when the heat escaping out of your attic melts the snow on your roof, causing it to run down to the eaves of your roof. Once it reaches the edges of your roof, it refreezes, and as this process repeats, it eventually causes liquid water to be held onto your roof deck, which can cause it to seep into the roof deck.

Hail

While snow & rain tend to do long-term damage, hail has a much more immediate impact. Rather than waiting weeks for water damage to show up in your roof deck, a ten-minute hail storm can break a number of shingles and provide an immediate need for a roof replacement. If your shingles are already worn, they are even more susceptible to breaking.

Contact Us Today

Interested in replacing your Pittsburgh-area home’s roof? Our team at Doing It Right Roofing is ready to assist! Reach out to our team today by calling us at (724) 351-0499 or by filling out our team’s online contact form! We look forward to hearing from you and assisting with your roof replacement needs!

Spring Roof Maintenance

Man cleaning gutters of his home

With spring arriving in the Pittsburgh area, it is important to ensure that your home’s exterior is in good repair! One of the areas that most often accumulates damage is your roof, as it functions as your home’s umbrella, helping to keep your home protected from inclement weather which exposes it to a great deal of damage itself. This makes it incredibly important to regularly inspect your roof for damage to ensure that it is kept in good repair! If you’re interested in learning how to maintain your home’s roof this spring, keep reading below for our tips & tricks.

Clean Your Gutters

First of all, you should always examine your home’s gutter system to ensure that it is working properly. Over the course of the winter, your gutter system will fill up with all of the dead leaves and sticks that were on your roof, which can easily gunk up the system and stop it from draining properly.

In order to keep your home protected, you will want to examine the gutter system and make sure that everything is draining. If your gutters are clogged, it can easily back-up into your roof deck, cause damage to your fascia & soffit boards, or even damage your foundation. Keep your home protected by cleaning your gutter system in the spring.

Examine Your Shingles

The next thing you should do is examine your roofing system as a whole to determine if there is any damage to the shingles themselves. Roof damage can present itself in a variety of ways, including through broken or cracked shingles, warping either in the shingles or the roof deck, or even something as simple as losing granules. Considering how complex your roofing system, it is no surprise that your shingles can fail in a variety of ways. You’ll need to check for every kind of shingle damage to ensure that your home’s roof is kept in good repair!

Check Your Flashing

Next, you should examine the flashing around any openings in your roof. The most important flashing you should examine is the flashing around your chimney. It can often rust, particularly during the winter when snow is sitting on your roof, and if your flashing rusts, water can seep in around your chimney and cause a great deal of damage to your roof deck.

Contact Us Today

Interested in replacing your home’s roof this spring? Our team at Doing It Right Roofing is ready to assist! Reach out to us by giving us a call at (724) 351-0499 or by filling out our team’s online contact form! We look forward to hearing from you and assisting with your roof replacement needs!

Signs You Should Replace Your Home’s Roof

 

When it comes to replacing your home’s roof, it can often be difficult to identify the signs that your roof is nearing the end of its lifespan. If you’re interested in learning how to identify whether your home’s roof needs to be replaced, take a look at our blog to learn about the signs your roof is failing that you may not have noticed!

Your Shingles Are Broken or Damaged

The most obvious sign that you need to replace your home’s roof is if your shingles are outwardly broken or damaged. Broken shingles won’t stop moisture from making its way into your home, meaning that your home’s roof deck will be exposed to water damage if your shingles are left damaged. If you notice that you have broken or missing shingles on your roof, be sure to replace your roof as soon as possible to keep your home protected!

Algae or Mold Growth

Another sign that you should consider replacing your home’s roof is when there is significant mold or algae growth on your home’s roof. If left unattended, the algae will eventually deteriorate your home’s roof and cause your shingles to lose their structural integrity.

The Roof Is Old

At the end of the day, shingle roof’s only last so long. The average lifespan for a well-installed asphalt shingle roof is roughly 20-30 years, meaning that if your roof is beginning to deteriorate after that length of time, it’s simply a sign that your whole roof should be replaced.

Curling or Warped Shingles

Sometimes damaged shingles won’t completely break or fall off of your roof, but rather they show their damage in more subtle ways. If your shingles are exposed to significant water damage, they can begin to warp or curl around the edges, which will allow water to seep in around the shingles and into your roof deck, where it can quickly cause much more expensive damage. If you notice that your shingles are absorbing water, have your roof replaced as quickly as possible.

Damaged Flashing

Finally, when it comes to assessing roof damage, many homeowners overlook the importance of checking their home’s flashing. If you have a chimney of your home, you’ll need to examine the flashing on a regular basis to make sure it isn’t rusting away. If your flashing begins to rust, water can seep into your roof deck through your chimney and cause significant damage. Be sure to replace damaged flashing as soon as possible before your roof deck is exposed to expensive water damage.

Contact Us Today

Interested in replacing your Pittsburgh home’s roof this spring? Our team at Doing It Right Roofing is ready to assist! Reach out to our team today by calling us at (724) 351-0499 or by filling out our team’s online contact form! We look forward to hearing from you and assisting with your roofing needs!

Benefits of Cedar Impressions Siding Shingles

When it comes to siding options, not all materials are made equal. You could elect to install the most popular siding material in North America, vinyl siding. You could also install beautiful new fiber cement siding, known for its durability, and aesthetics. However, there is one siding material that will improve your home’s curb appeal more than anything else, all without sacrificing your siding’s ability to keep your home well protected; Composite Cedar Impressions siding shingles. If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of Cedar Impressions, keep reading below for more information!

Beauty

The first benefit of Cedar Impressions shingles are that they provide your home with truly unmatched curb appeal. Wooden siding is a timeless style, but it comes with maintenance issues that prevent more homeowners from using it. However, Cedar Impressions provides all of the beauty of traditional wood without the hassle. Available in a wide array of colors, Cedar Impressions are sure to boost your home’s curb appeal. Furthermore, you can also get Cedar Impressions shingles in a variety of different styles, including shake & sawmill, ensuring that no matter what style you’re looking for, our team has the perfect siding solution for your home!

Durability

In addition to the beauty of Cedar Impressions, they also offer nearly unmatched durability. Cedar Impressions are made of a highly durable polymer, meaning they are immune to many of the maintenance & structural issues that often arise when using traditional wooden siding.

Cedar Impressions is designed to withstand any inclement weather and damage, including mold, mildew, and moisture, but they are also capable of withstanding hurricane-force winds.

Maintenance-Free

When you use real wood for your siding, the exposure to the elements will eventually cause the materials to wear down. Cedar Impressions, on the other hand, are completely maintenance-free. Cedar Impressions will never need to be painted, and while they may need to be occasionally cleaned or sealed, that’s the most maintenance you will ever need to perform on your home’s siding. If you’re looking for a siding material that you can install and forget, Cedar Impressions is a great option!

Contact Us Today

If you’re interested in learning more about our team’s polymer cedar siding shingle installation services, our team at Doing It Right Roofing is ready to assist! You can reach out to our team to by giving us a call at (724) 351-0499 or by filling out our team’s online contact form! We look forward to hearing from you and assisting with your siding installation needs!

Old Asphalt Shingle Roof with light damage

Tips To Help Improve The Lifespan Of Your Roof

Your home’s roof is one of the most important pieces of your home’s exterior, helping to keep your home protected from everything Mother Nature has to offer. Considering your home is constantly exposed to the elements, its no surprise that it can quickly degrade if it’s not properly maintained! However, if you know how to take care of your home’s roof, you can considerably extend the lifespan of it with a bit of maintenance along the way. Take a look at our blog to learn more about how to improve the lifespan of your home’s roof!

Clean Your Gutter System

If you’re trying to improve the lifespan of your roof, one of the most important things you can do is keep your gutter system clean. Most homeowners neglect to consider that if they don’t clean their gutters, it will have the most direct impact on their roof system. As debris and water back up, it can begin to seep under your shingle system where it can quickly cause considerable damage to your roofing system.

Have Your Roof Inspected Each Year

Another great thing to do if you want to improve your roof’s lifespan is to have it regularly inspected. A roof inspection can reveal smaller issues that would have become more serious if left unattended, particularly for multiple years, such as cracking/broken shingles, loose granules, broken flashing, & more! If you’re serious about trying to improve your roof’s lifespan, this is one of the most important things you can do!

Keep Debris Off Of The Roof

One thing that will quickly reduce the lifespan of your roof is allowing debris and trees to damage your granules and shingle system. If you have a lot of debris on your roof, it can hold moisture onto your shingle system where it can cause damage, particularly if it freezes and thaws during the winter. Furthermore, if there are any trees close to your home, the branches can brush across your shingles, knocking loose granules and reducing your roof’s integrity!

Ventilate & Insulate

Finally, be sure that your home’s attic is properly ventilated and insulated help reduce rot,  mold, mildew, and ice dam issues. Having air flowing through your attic will help to regulate the temperature of your attic and prevent a number of issues that could pop up if the attic isn’t properly insulated or ventilated!

Contact Us Today

Interested in replacing your home’s roof in the Pittsburgh, PA area? Our team at Doing It Right Roofing is ready to assist! Reach out to our team today by calling us at (724) 351-0499 or by filling out our team’s online contact form! We look forward to hearing from you and assisting with your roof replacement needs!

Benefits of Installing A Skylight

Two SkylightsFor many homeowners, adding a skylight feels like an unnecessary luxury that often has more drawbacks than benefits. However, if a skylight is well-installed, it can provide a number of benefits for your home! For those who are skeptical about whether or not it is a worthwhile investment to install a skylight on their home, take a look at our blog to learn more about the benefits of adding a skylight to your home’s roof!

Curb Appeal & Resale Value

One of the first benefits that comes to mind when homeowners consider adding a skylight to their home is the curb appeal that it adds. A skylight is a beautiful addition to any home’s exterior and many homeowners love the way they look. If you ever plan on selling your home, adding a skylight is an easy way to boost your home’s value!

Boost The Amount Of Natural Light In Your Home

Another common benefit that homeowners think of when considering the pros and installing a new skylight on their home’s roof is that it provides your home with natural light. If your home is surrounded by vegetation, it can often be difficult to get natural light in your home. Adding a skylight to your roof is an easy way to bolster the amount of light that your home receives.

Ventilation

If you install a skylight that can be opened and closed, it can be a fantastic way to improve the ventilation in your home. Since heat rises, if your home is feeling hot and stuffy in the summer, opening a couple of windows and your skylight can help create a vacuum that sucks the hot air out through the skylight while also bringing in more temperate air from the ground level.

Make The Room Feel Larger

Adding a skylight to a room can make the space feel larger. While building a skylight obviously won’t increase the total amount of inhabitable space in a room, it will create a large opening to the ceiling that will make the room feel larger even though you technically don’t have any additional space.

Contact Us Today

If you need to install a skylight on your home this fall, our team at Doing It Right Roofing is ready to assist! Reach out to our team today to learn more about our skylight installation services! Our team looks forward to assisting with your skylight installation needs!

Benefits of Fiber Cement Siding

Fiber Cement sidingWhile vinyl siding has long been the standard of the North American siding industry, there is another option that has been gaining in popularity over the last few decades, fiber cement siding. For homeowners looking to install a less conventional siding material on their homes, fiber cement siding presents a welcome alternative. If you’re interested in learning more about the benefits of fiber cement siding, keep reading below for more information!

Longer Lifespan

One of the primary reasons homeowners like to install fiber cement siding on their homes is that it provides a much longer lifespan than vinyl siding. Vinyl siding generally lasts for roughly 20-30 years, but fiber cement siding has the potential to last much longer. Well-maintained fiber cement can last upwards of 50 years, meaning that for many homeowners, once you’ve resided your home once, it’s possible that you’ll never need to replace it. If you’re looking for a siding material that lasts decades, fiber cement is a great option.

Aesthetics

Another reason that homeowners love fiber cement siding is for the aesthetic benefits that it provides. Fiber Cement is widely manufactured, making it available in a wide variety of color and design options. If you’re looking for a siding material that will boost your home’s curb appeal and resale value, fiber cement is a fantastic choice. Fiber cement can be designed to mimic the texture of nearly any other siding material on the market, including cedarwood. This makes it a great option to provide your home with both durability and beauty!

Durability

Speaking of its durability, fiber cement is far stronger than traditional vinyl siding, making it the perfect option for those in need of a siding material that can withstand a variety of different weather conditions. As most Pennslyvania homeowners know, we experience a bit of every kind of weather in the Mid-Atlantic, from blizzards to sweltering heat & humidity, to the occasional tropical storm! If you’re in search of a siding material that can withstand anything Mother Nature has to throw at it, Fiber Cement siding is a fantastic option. It is built to withstand high winds, fire, offers resistance to rot, humidity, and nearly anything else that your home is exposed to. Particularly in a climate like Pittsburgh that provides so much variety, fiber cement is a fantastic option to handle any weather that comes your way!

Contact Us Today

If you need to replace your home’s siding this fall, our team at Doing It Right Roofing is ready to assist! Reach out to us today to learn more about our James Hardie Fiber Cement installation services, as well as our vinyl siding installations. If you’re interested in learning more about our services, give us a call at (724) 351-0499 or by filling out our team’s online contact form! We look forward to hearing from you and assisting with your exterior remodeling needs!

Fall Roof Maintenance

Man Cleaning His Gutters on Ladder

With Fall in full swing and winter just around the corner, it is important to ensure that your home is properly protected for the winter months. One of the most important things you can do to prepare your home for the cooler months is to perform a bit of roofing maintenance in the fall. If you’re interested in learning more about what you should be doing to ensure your home is properly protected, keep reading below to learn a few tips and tricks.

Clean Your Gutters

As we covered in our last blog, cleaning your gutters is incredibly important for the health of your home. First of all, having clogged gutters can lead to water pouring over the sides of your gutter system where it can get under your starter shingles, run down your siding & fascia boards, and drip down onto your flower beds and foundation. Furthermore, if you have a lot of debris in your gutter system holding moisture and it freezes in the winter, your roof run-off won’t be able to drain anywhere and your home could be exposed to ice dams. In order to prevent expensive repairs, be sure to perform routine maintenance on your gutter system.

Remove Debris

Another issue that your roof may be exposed to, particularly in the fall, is being covered in debris. This can be a problem both if the debris ends up clogging your gutter system, but also if the debris holds a lot of moisture against your shingles causing it to eventually freeze and damage the shingles themselves. If you find that your roof is particularly covered in debris, you’ll want to clean it off before the winter months!

Examine Your Shingles

Finally, you’ll want to keep an eye on the most important piece of your home’s roofing system, your shingles. They can begin to breakdown in a variety of ways, including warping, cracking, losing their granules, and falling off of your roof entirely. If you find that your shingles are failing, you’ll want to have the shingles replaced before the winter months begin in order to protect your home from expensive water damage. Having damaged shingles can allow water to seep into your roof deck where it can quickly cause rot damage. If you find that your shingles are damaged, be sure to have your roof repaired as soon as possible!

Contact Us Today

Do you need to replace your roof before the winter begins? Our team at Doing It Right Roofing is ready to assist! We can be reached over the phone at (724) 351-0499 or by filling out our team’s online contact form! We look forward to hearing from you and assisting with your roof replacement needs!

Best Season To Replace Your Roof

Old roof in the fall with yellow leaves falling on it

If you need to replace your home’s roof, you may be wondering what the best time of year is to tackle the replacement process. Is it during the winter, when contractors workloads are slower, or is it the summer month when warm weather permits an easy workflow. If you’re interested in learning more about the best season to replace your home’s roof, keep reading below for more information!

Winter

First on our list is winter. As you may have guessed, winter is arguably the worst season to tackle your roof replacement. The cold, snowy weather can make the installation process difficult, as there is a great deal of stagnant moisture that accumulates on your roof during the winter weather. Additionally, the cold weather itself can make it difficult to install the shingle system correctly. In general, this is the worst season to tackle a roof replacement for the reasons above. However, if it is still early in the season, before the snow has begun to fall, it is possible that you may be able to get a quick appointment with a contractor, as the winter months are the slowest for contractors. Furthermore, even if you cannot get a full roof replacement completed during the winter, you can still contact contractors for patch jobs with the agreement that they will replace the roof in the springtime!

Spring

Arguably the second-best season for roof replacements, the spring season offers cool, but temperate, weather, ideal for roof installations. As long as the rain holds out, spring is a great time to have your roof replaced. However, the major issue with the spring months is that contractors tend to have a long list of jobs that they need to complete, as calls have come in all winter long and many people are taking stock of their home’s exteriors to get replacements and repairs completed. If you can book a timely appointment, spring is a great time for your replacement, but it can often be difficult to find a contractor who doesn’t have a long list of jobs they need to complete before yours.

Summer

While many homeowners would assume that summer is the ideal season to replace a roof, it can be a difficult undertaking in the summer heat. Crews often need to start working on the morning and take a break during the peak heat of the day, as it gets incredibly hot on an asphalt shingle roof. While the weather is generally good for roof replacements, the heat can make it a more arduous process than it would be during the cooler months.

Fall

Finally, we have arrived at what is arguably the best season for roof replacements, Fall. The reason fall is the best month is that it offers a mix of the best traits of each season. Generally, the weather is cool enough to permit long workdays, but the weather also tends to be less precipitous than the spring months that offer similar temperatures. It also allows you to have a freshly installed roof before the winter, protecting your home from any leaking or ice dam issues that may have plagued a less sound roof. If you are able to have your roof replaced during the fall, it is the best time of the year to tackle the project.

Contact Us Today

Do you need to replace your home’s roof this fall? Our team at Doing It Right Roofing is ready to assist! We can be reached over the phone at (724) 351-0499 or by filling out our online contact form! We look forward to hearing from you and assisting with your roof replacement needs!

Benefits Of Metal Roofing

Metal Roofing is a less conventional roofing material that has been gaining in popularity recently due to all of the benefits that it provides. If you’re interested in learning more about why more homeowners have been choosing metal roofing, take a look at our blog to learn more about the pros of metal roofing!

Longer Lifespan Than Asphalt Shingles

One of the greatest benefits of metal roofing is that it is long-lasting. While asphalt shingles generally last between 15 and 30 years at the maximum, metal roofing can easily last upwards of 50 years, and potentially much longer with a bit of maintenance. If you’re in search of a roofing material that you will never need to replace, metal roofing is a fantastic option!

Lightweight and Easy To Install

Metal roofing is far lighter than tile roofing, and even lighter than some of the heavier duty, architectural shingles that some homeowners choose to install. This has a couple of benefits. First of all, it means that your roof will need less support, saving you engineering costs. The other benefit is that it makes it even easier to install. Metal roofing is already relatively easy to install due to the fact that is constructed of large sheets of roofing rather than individual shingles. This makes it easy to install, which is particularly useful if you’re in need of a quick fix for your home’s roof!

Fire Resistant

Another reason that homeowners choose to install metal roofing is that is it entirely fire-resistant. While asphalt shingles generally possess a Class 1A fire rating, depending on the manufacturer, they will still melt and burn when exposed to a flame for a long period of time. Metal roofing on the other hand, will never burn. This makes it a safe option to install on homes in wildfire territory, as well as a smart option for homeowners looking to preemptively protect their home’s from fire damage.

Cooling Properties

Metal Roofing helps reflect solar heat away from the home, rather than asphalt shingles which absorb a lot of solar energy, which in turn helps reduce your cooling costs. If you find that you’re spending a considerable amount of money on air conditioning costs, installing a metal roof can help reduce the amount of energy used to cool your home.

Weather Resistant

Metal roofing is completely impervious to rot and other moisture damage, making it great for climates that receive a lot of rain or snow. Slippery, hard metal roofing offers no grooves for moisture to get trapped in, making it easy to shed excess moisture.

Aesthetics

Finally, metal roofing looks fantastic. Its unique look will help provide your home with additional curb appeal in comparison to the homes with asphalt shingles in your neighborhood. Furthermore, metal roofing is available in a variety of colors, ensuring that you can find the perfect color to fit the aesthetic of your home’s exterior.

Contact Us Today

If you’re interested in learning more about metal roofing, or installing a metal roof on your home today, our team is ready to assist! We can be reached over the phone at (724) 351-0499 or by filling out our team’s online contact form! We look forward to hearing from you and assisting with your roof replacement needs!