Roof Maintenance

We have just come through another good old Canadian winter and are heading into thunderstorm weather. Now is a good time to check your roof and make sure you have no loose shingles or sheets of steel and no screws or nails missing to ensure you are able to weather the summer storms.

Roofs take a lot of abuse from high winds that vibrate through the building, not to mention the scorching hot sun that expands steel and bakes asphalt shingles, to extreme cold that contracts steel. This can lead to loosening of nails and screws that hold the steel down on your roof.

Building maintenance is important, you service and maintain your farm equipment, so why not your roof? Walk around your barn or shed first looking at your roof from different angles to see if you can find loose sheets of steel. Then if possible to do safely, get a ladder and climb up to the eave in a few different locations and physically look at what is holding that steel down. Push the steel down around the screw to see if it moves. If it does it is time for maintenance. If your roof is too high or you are unable to check the roof yourself, call a contractor to have it checked for you.

Don’t wait for a thunderstorm or wind storm to damage your roof. Avoid the stress of an emergency repair and a potential claims situation. Checking your roof on a regular basis as part of your overall building maintenance program makes sense. Usborne and Hibbert Mutual Insurance has a program to help offset the cost of re-screwing your barn roof before it fails, contact your agent or broker today for more information.

Dave Erb,
Loss Prevention