The Long-Term Cost of Not Maintaining Your Roof

If you are a home or business owner, you understand how many expenses can pile up over time. Maintaining a building is a lot of work, and we understand why some people might need to prioritize spending on what’s most urgent. When it comes to your roof, we say, don’t put it off for long! 

At Pinnacle Roofing we have seen it all when it comes to wear and tear on a roof. We have done countless evaluations only for the owners to choose to ignore them, resulting in much more serious damage later on. It’s important to follow through with roof repairs now in order to avoid really big problems later on. Let’s discuss some of the short-term impacts of not maintaining your roof that are often signs of some long-term impacts to come. 

Short-Term Impacts

Don’t turn a blind eye when you notice these issues start to pop up with your roof as they can be huge signs of something more serious–and expensive–to take care of later. 

Leaking

People who grow up in older houses and buildings may think it’s normal for a roof to leak from time to time. This couldn’t be further from the truth! If you are setting out buckets to catch falling water during heavy rain, you should know that this is not normal and could be one of the first signs of damage to your roof. Well-maintained roofs shouldn’t be letting any water in. If you notice a leaky roof in your home or business, you should call a roofing company like Pinnacle to do an evaluation to see what is going on and what can be done to resolve it.

Pest Infestations

If you are finding pests an ongoing problem in your building, the issue could be the roof. When holes begin to form, this can mean an access point to bugs, rodents, and even bigger animals like raccoons. Once animals enter the scene they can sometimes be really tricky to get rid of, and you certainly don’t want to hear anything scuttling around in your roof at all hours. 

High Energy Bills

Healthy roofing systems are meant to sustain an equilibrium between venting and maintaining the central heating and cooling of your home. Buildings are designed with vents in the roof to release the right amount of air, but when there are untreated holes, your expensive utilities may begin leaking out all on their own. If you notice your heating or cooling bill beginning to skyrocket, then it might be time to have your roof evaluated to ensure that there isn’t something more serious at work. 

Mold Growth

Mold isn’t just a pesky growth on your roof–it can be dangerous to the health of the people inside. When a building’s roofing is leaking and holding water for long periods of time, this is the prime environment where mold can begin to grow. To prevent mold growth you need to regularly maintain your roof, check your gutters, and check your insulation to make sure that moisture and damp haven’t encouraged mold growth. Once it starts growing, it can often be difficult to get rid of, so don’t let it get started in the first place!

Long-Term Impacts

If left alone for too long, some of these short-term signs may slowly turn into more serious, long-term impacts. The short-term issues might be a pain to deal with but hopefully won’t cause sustained damage to the building itself. When left for a long-time, these issues are often more big issues with the entire structure of the home or business.

Danger of Collapse

The worst possible outcome of neglecting a roof is having it collapse and cause injury or death. This can sometimes more easily happen in areas where there is a large amount of snowfall that makes the roof too heavy to sustain them after a while. But even in the MidSouth, there are risks of roofs falling purely from neglect and water intake. Please don’t put people at risk, and take care of your roof!

Severe Water Damage

Severe water damage looks like water leaking through the roof and into other parts of the house, wreaking havoc with many systems like the plumbing and electrical. Imagine dealing not only with fixing a roof but now having repairs on many areas of the building’s structure. The costs will continue to pile up and can make the building less safe to inhabit over time. 

Higher Repair Costs

As we were just discussing, the longer you leave a roofing issue, the more it can turn into a huge problem. If you had dealt with it early it may have only resulted in an easy patch job. But over time, if not addressed, you may have to replace the entire roof and other parts of the building infrastructure due to a neglected roof. This is how buildings become condemned, oftentimes starting with a poorly maintained roof. 

Reduced Property Value

As a building slowly sustains more and more damage from roof damage, the property value will likely plummet along with the house infrastructure. It would be such a shame for a wonderful building and property to lose so much of its value through easily preventable reasons like keeping up with roof repairs!

Save Your Roof with Pinnacle Roofing!

We know that these predictions all sound a little bleak, but there is hope! Your local MidSouth roofing company, Pinnacle Roofing, is available to not only come and evaluate the health of your roof but start making the repairs you need big or small. Don’t put off taking care of your roof now and avoid so many of the things we talk about above! Give us a call today with your issues, big or small. We can’t wait to help you take care of your roof and keep you and your family safe!