How to Keep Your Landscaping from Damaging Your Roof
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How to Keep Your Landscaping from Damaging Your Roof

How to Keep Your Landscaping from Damaging Your Roof

 

Landscape plantings can give a home a warm ambiance, but they can also cause costly residential roofing damage. Here’s some helpful advice on how to keep your landscaping from damaging your home’s roof.

Trim Nearby Tall Trees

Trees are a lovely landscaping component, and their leafy canopy can provide valuable shade against the hot summer sun. Tall trees close to the house with limbs that overhang the roof can leave it vulnerable to damage, though. Low-hanging branches can scrape and degrade the roofing material, and heavy limbs can break, fall and puncture your roof during a storm. To protect your roof from potential harm, keep nearby trees trimmed so they’re 10 feet away from your home.

Check for Clogged Gutters

Leaves, needles, seed pods, twigs and other falling debris from nearby trees can also collect in your gutters and slow or halt the flow of draining water. When rainwater coming off the roof has no escape route, it’s going to overflow and cause deterioration of the roof edge and fascia, or backup under the shingles and decay the decking and rafters, and eventually leak into the attic/exterior walls. To avoid such damage, check the gutters a few times a year and have them cleaned out before they become clogged with debris.

Monitor Moss Growth

While moss isn’t a landscaping choice, it is a plant that can easily invade your rooftop and cause considerable damage. Moss thrives in the shade, and particularly in areas where moist debris collects. The plant’s tiny roots can loosen and lift shingle edges so they’re more susceptible to storm damage, and wick moisture underneath where it can rot the roof sheathing and cause attic leaks. If you discover moss growth on your roof, it’s best to hire an experienced pro who can safely remove it without causing additional damage.

Control Climbing Vines

Lush, flowering vines look beautiful growing up the side of your home, but they can wreak havoc if they’re allowed to reach roof level. Aggressive growers can latch onto tiny nooks and crannies on your roof and dislodge the shingles, leaving the structure exposed to the weather and vulnerable to leaks and water damage. To prevent possible harm to the roof and your home’s interior, keep high-climbing vines trimmed back.

If you’re in need of expert residential roofing services to fix damage caused by the landscaping around your Athens home, contact us at Yellowhammer Roofing.

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