A lot of people often ask how to clean roof until safe from leaks. Yes, keeping the roof on the top of your head remains well-functioned is essential especially during raining season. When the roof is leaking, water will get inside the house easily and make a mess inside the house. That is why a leaking roof needs to be prevented. However, if the leaking is already happened, you need to know how to clean roof until safe from leaks. Below, you will find the steps to fix roof leaking and of course to clean the roof.
1. Clean the Roof First
Leaking roof usually happens because of damaged shingles. The shingles can get cracking, broken, and even have a hole on them. That is why the water from the rain can easily get into the house. To fix the leaking roof, you need to clean the roof first. When cleaning the roof, you need several equipments such as a ladder, glove, rubber boot, small broom, and plastic bag. Wear the glove and rubber boots so that it will be safer for you when you are up there cleaning the roof. Then, use the ladder to get up on the top of the roof. This job is a quite dangerous job so that it will be probably safer not to do it all by yourself. Once you get on the top of the roof. You will see a lot of dirt on the roof especially if your house is surrounded by tall trees. There will be heaps of dried leaves and tree branches on the top of the roof. If the trees have fruits, fallen fruits can be on the top of the roof as well. With this condition, it will be hard to find which part of the roof causes the leaking. That is why you need to clean the roof first. Use your broom to sweep the roof basically and clean up all branches, leaves, and whatever things on the top of the roof. Trash them away in the plastic bag and there you have a clean roof. If there’s stain on the roof, you can also bring up some water and cloth to clean up the stain from the roof.
2. Find the Leaks
What you need to do now is find the broken shingles or cracked shingles that cause the leaking. Once you find the problem, take a look at it and find out whether you can still fix it or that you have to replace the shingles. If the cracks are just small and not too severe, you do not need to replace the shingles. All you need to do is reseal the shingles. However, if the shingles are severely damaged (split) and even there’s a hole on it, you need to remove the shingles and replace it with the new ones.
3. Fixing Cracked Shingles
This is the step that you need to do if the shingles on the roof are not too damaged. If the shingles only become cracked a little bit and there is no split or holes found on it, you really do not have to do any replacement. This kind of light damage is usually caused by falling branches or pebbles. To fix this kind of little damage, all you need to do is preparing an adhesive material to reseal the shingles. So, you really do not need to completely remove the damaged shingles completely. To do that, you need to line the crack using enough amount of adhesive. Make sure that the amount of adhesive you pour is enough to stick the crack back together. Also, make sure that you hold it for a minute or so so that you let it seal properly.
4. Replacing the Shingles
If the damage on the shingles is quite severe, you need to replace the shingles with the new one to prevent worse leaking. Severely damaged shingles case is probably caused by fallen heavy stuff like ripe fruits or stones. Big piece of tree branch can also cause severe damage to the shingles. To fix the problem, first of all you need to remove the damaged shingles. Removing the damaged shingles is better to be done when the weather is not too hot because hot weather can really cause the shingles to be scalding. Do not forget to always wear your safety gloves. After you remove the damaged shingles, asses the shingles and make sure you find out how many pieces of new shingles are needed. After you find out the exact number, prepare the replacement shingles (do not forget to prepare some extra shingles just in case) and start inserting the shingles. In inserting the new shingle, make sure that the new shingles are placed in the exact same position of the old damages shingles you’ve removed. Usually, there will be adhesive strip on the back of a new shingle to stick it to the roof. Make sure you have peeled the covering and then start pushing the shingle to the place. After all shingles are replaced, prepare nails and hammer and use them to secure the shingles. Use at least three nails per shingles. After the new shingles are secured, just do not forget to make sure that any visible gaps or loosen part are already glued and secured.
5. Use Sealant
To prevent any leaking, just make sure after all the shingles are replaced, you layer them with sealant. Sealant is waterproof so that it will prevent the water from the rain to get absorbed by the roof. Also, it will prevent the roof from extreme heat from the sun as well. When choosing the sealants, you must be sure that it is specifically designed for roof material. Beside of that, make sure that it is waterproof. Choose the sealants made out of materials like polyurethane. This kind of material is completed by long-lasting weatherproof effect. It will perfectly complete the process of how to clean roof until safe from leaks.
