How to extend the life of your roof

Getting eighteen years out of a fifteen-year roof

The difference between a Tampa roof that fails at fourteen years and one that is still sound at nineteen is almost never the shingle. It is ventilation, drainage and whether anyone dealt with the small things. Roofs in this climate take an unusual amount of abuse: intense UV, daily thermal cycling through the summer, and rainfall that arrives faster than most gutter systems were sized for.

• Clear gutters and downspouts twice a year, before and after wet season
• Cut back any branch within about three metres of the roof plane
• Check attic ventilation is not blocked by insulation at the soffits
• Have failed sealant at penetrations renewed rather than left another year

Attic ventilation is the one most people never think about and the one that does the most damage when it is wrong. A poorly vented attic in a Florida summer will cook the underside of the decking and age the shingles from below, which is why two identical roofs on the same street can be five years apart in condition.

The maintenance that is worth paying for

An annual inspection with photographs costs very little and gives you a documented history of the roof, which matters enormously if you ever file a claim. Sealant renewal at pipe boots, vents and flashings is cheap and prevents the leaks we most often get called out to. Pressure washing a shingle roof, on the other hand, strips granules and shortens its life. Do not let anyone do it.

Nearly every roof we replace early had a small problem somebody deferred, and then a storm turned it into a large one.

None of this makes a roof immortal. It does mean that when the roof does reach the end, it does so on your schedule and your budget rather than in the middle of a September storm with a tarp on the ridge and an adjuster on the phone.