The roof is the largest area of the home and, often, it is one of the most complex depending on the style of the roof and its age. It is impossible to tell the condition of the roof from the ground, and the homeowner should never go up on the roof. There are many accidents every year, some of them fatal, resulting from the homeowner falling off of the roof. An experienced residential roofer should go up on the roof and examine the shingles, the moisture barrier, the flashing and the deck or underlayment, as it is sometimes referred to.
Residential roofing in Portland companies offer professional roofers who will be looking for shingles that are cracked, lose, lifted up, that have no asphalt granules left, and shingles that are missing. The roofer will be checking the moisture barrier and the deck for leaks, and the flashing around the openings of the chimney and the vents. The valleys will also be checked. The edges of the roof will be checked for areas where the wind has lifted the shingles up allowing moisture to get in. If the roofer suspects that there is a possibility of a leak he should go into the attic and check that area for traces of water. A leaking roof will allow water to move uninhibited down between the walls causing black mold to grow.
One strong recommendation from Superior Roofing is to replace the deck with one of the new materials that will hold up well for a long time. Another recommendation will be to install a drip edge underneath the roofing felt or moisture barrier. This will direct the water away from the roof and prevent the wind from blowing rain under the roof. Of course the starter strip, which is laid at the edge of the roof and glued down or nailed down, will assist in keeping the roof under the shingles dry. The moisture barrier is laid to overlap the edges and either glued or nailed down.
The roof cap should be vented. This is where the two roofing sides join to form an inverted V. Roofers cut a two inch wide strip off the wood deck and remove it. They replace it with a roof vent cover and then shingles. They make sure the flashing is properly sealed and the nails have a bit of tar on the heads.
