Several components enter into the equation once we talk about how long your roof will protect your home.

The materials used, the experience of the workers who installed it and the level of bad weather you experience are possibly the first 3.

Assuming your roof has been installed by professionals using quality material, we are faced with the third component: Mother Nature. High winds and hail are both of the most frequent roofing inconveniences facing home and business owners today, but there is something you can do to remedy the problem.

Signs that require a roof inspection

Larger hailstones will leave pockmarks, dents or holes in asphalt shingles (the most popular roofing material), which is an obvious sign that a roofing contractor should be called in for an inspection.

Smaller hailstones will flake off the small granules that safeguard the waterproofing layers of the shingles. Such granules will accumulate in the gutters and/or at the downspout outlet end. While your shingles have a chance of being fine after the loss of certain granules, any loss will corrode the effective life of your roof, which means that an annual inspection is suggested, especially for roofs well over 10 years old.

What might not be such an obvious risk to your roof is intense wind, however the drawbacks definitely remain. Wind speeds fluctuate and change direction, which can cause roofing materials to shake and ripple, giving way to lose surfaces that are not moisture resistant at the moment. It is constantly impossible to see without a professional inspection.

Most homeowners only know the evil is there because they experience a leak, which means they remain at risk of all the inconveniences that occur once moisture enters the home: rot, mold, mildew, fungus and bacterial growth.

Repairing Your Roof After Windstorm Woes

Homeowners who experience windstorms that drop branches have to worry about both assessing the damage to their roofs and removing the fallen branches. Call a professional roofing contractor to get on your roof and look for the usual inconveniences involved with hail and wind-generated ailments.