Heavy Rain & Flat Roofing: Maintenance Tips
Due to a recent spell of torrential rain in El Paso, many business owners are noticing issues in their roofs caused by them. Uncharacteristic downpours have affected most of the city, leading to floods and extensive property damage. This property damage extended to the city’s roofs, with flat roofs dealing with unique challenges compared to their sloped counterparts.
At El Paso Roofing, we understand all too well how damaging rain can be. In this blog, we’ll discuss how to spot signs of flat roof damage from storms and how to best prevent damage in the future.
Flat Roofing and Water
While flat roofs aren’t actually completely flat, they have very low slopes compared to sloped residential roofs. This means that a heavy downpour could cause water to pool on your roof for an extended period of time, since they lack an aggressive slope to wick water away. For well-installed and maintained flat roofs this is not commonly an issue, but older, more worn roofs could experience this often.
When water pools on your roof, that means that continuous pressure is placed on the roof, which could lead to a full leak. The chance of a leak greatly increases with other factors like heavy winds or hail.
To prevent resting water from damaging your roof, simply have your roof maintained and inspected on a regular basis. You can also look for signs of damage from below the roof, but never go out onto the roof yourself.
Flat roofing leaks could also be caused by skylights in your roof. Skylights look fantastic, but they can be a source of leaks when not properly installed or maintained, or when damaged. If you plan on having a skylight in your roof or currently have one, beware that it could be a source of leaks in the future.
Other reasons that your flat roof may leak are metal corrosion, wind damage, lack of roof coating, and other factors.
Diagnosing And Fixing Your Flat Roof Leak
While there’s not much you can do to repair a leak outside of hiring a roofer, you could help identify the source of the leaks by knowing what to look for. For instance, leaks near a skylight may be caused by gaps in the framing. Water leaking from near the seams of your roof could be caused by metal corrosion, and so on. Once you call a dedicated roofing team, you can then describe what you’ve noticed and potentially save time on repairs.
Once the roof is fully fixed, be sure to invest in regular roofing inspection and maintenance. Many roofing leaks can be avoided by seeing the signs early, which is only possible with regular inspections. You could save thousands of dollars in repairs with simple maintenance.
Let El Paso Roofing Keep Your Flat Roof Healthy!
If you’ve noticed that your flat roof has some damage or even leaks, don’t hesitate to address the issue. Using our tips, you can inspect the problem yourself while one of our roofing professionals comes to inspect and fix the issue.
To learn more about protecting and repairing your flat roof, contact El Paso Roofing today!