Roof Maintenance – Don’t Try This At Home!

DIY roof maintenance and repairs are not recommended for the extremely simple reason. You can fall off!It may look easy and sound simple but carrying your tools/material up and down ladders can pose serious risk of injury or even death. It’s just not worth it.

You know the importance of maintaining a strong roof. One leak could cause a whole lot of structural damage to your home, and you don’t want that. When you know your roof needs work you should call a professional. Do it yourself roofing may seem like a good idea, but trust us—it isn’t.

You might think you’re saving money by taking on the job yourself, but you could be costing yourself a lot more than you realise. First, repairing a roof is one of the most dangerous tasks to take on. The professionals know how to navigate this tricky landscape. You do not. It’s easy to fall off of your roof!

Getting onto your roof is dangerous, and even if you get up there successfully—you won’t know what you’re looking at, or what you’re looking for. Repairing a roof is one of the most dangerous home projects you can try to do yourself. When there’s a lack of special matting or an anti-slip roof coating, falls are more likely to occur. If there are no helmets or goggles, inadequate restraints, or you’re trying to rush through a job on your weekend off –you’re putting yourself at risk.

The danger isn’t only touching the people on the roof, but falling roof debris, hammers or other equipment can also cause injuries to people or vehicles below. Everyone that works in the roofing profession must comply with Health and Safety Executive guidelines.

Roofing professionals make sure to educate their employees, provide the safest working environment possible, and carry out correct risk assessments on every roofing job they approach. More importantly, when you climb onto your roof to fix it yourself you might end up causing more damage. You could damage tiles by stepping on them with your full weight. You could end up with a leaky roof, and that can cause serious damage to the exterior of the house and its structural reliability.

A leaky roof can also leave hidden areas damp, and create mould. Second, let’s look at the most obvious reason why anyone would try a roofing job themselves: to save money. Sure, you’re not hiring professionals to do the job right, but you will end up taking that money and putting it towards supplies.

An average homeowner doesn’t have access to high-quality materials that are used by professionals, and you don’t want to use inferior materials because it can lead to further damage. Professionals also have access to these materials at wholesale prices, so you’re going to spend more money than they do. Even if you manage to get the right materials for your project, you still may not know how to use them correctly.

Instead of allowing the professionals to get the job done in a day or two, you’ll spend that amount of time trying to figure out how to do the job properly. Lastly, if you’re thinking of doing a roofing job yourself you need to think about asbestos. Eighty percent of homes built prior to 1980 still contain asbestos, and much of that number comes from roofing materials. Asbestos was added to roofing materials to make them more durable. Everything from roofing cement to roofing shingles may contain asbestos and those fibres run the risk of becoming airborne when disturbed by lifting and/or breaking the existing materials, and you don’t want to breathe that stuff in!

So before you jump at the chance to repair your own roof. Think of the consequences. You could end up spending more money on materials and more time on learning how to fix your problem. You could cause more damage to your roof if not properly fixed, and you could inhale dangerous materials if you don’t know what you’re dealing with. More importantly, you could fall!

If you live in South East England instead of taking the risk on your health and your wallet contact Protech Building Solutions on 0845 604 1288 our friendly team are here to help or visit our Protech Roof Solutions for information on our roofing services.