Roofing problems are typical of aging shingles, shifting extreme temperatures, improper installation, and poor roof maintenance. If your property has damaged roofs, you may hire the services of a professional roofing contractor. If the issues are minor, you may choose to repair them yourself.
However, the process may vary if you own a rental property, such as apartments or commercial spaces. Your primary concern could be the privacy of your tenants, especially if the roofing problems may require some repairs.
Suppose you’re planning to fix your rental property’s roofing soon. In that case, here’s an article to guide you. This article will provide a few steps, tips, and tricks to handle your roofing problems better. So, read on!
1. Assess The Roof Condition
Whether you’re repairing or re-roofing commercial buildings, apartments, or condominiums, assessment is necessary. You may use a monitoring checklist to keep the evaluation manageable and organized.
You may take photos of the roofing problems. These allow you to identify the causes of the roofing problems and check out the potential risks of future roofing issues.
In this step, you may need to seek permission from the tenants before accessing the property’s interior parts. Yet, you’d still inspect the shingles, gutters, and sidings for optimal results.
This evaluation may help you identify the appropriate solutions. For better handling of roof problems, you may consider running maintenance checks of your roofing and other portions of the property every quarter.
2. Choose The Appropriate Roofing Solutions
After assessing your roof, you may select the best solution. Check out the following repairs and renovation for better ideas:
- Shingle Repairs
If your shingles shrink, split, and curl, you may need to replace them. Neglecting broken shingles may lead to more serious roofing problems, so repairs must be taken at once.
- Flashing Repairs
If your flashing fails to rebuff water, you may consider repairing it. Apart from these, other signs of damage are loose flashing materials and corrosion and rust. Concrete patching or pugging pinholes with roofing cement are necessary to address this issue.
- Leaky Roof Repairs
Apart from the dripping water, some common signs of roof leaks are mold growth in walls and spots on the interior ceilings. In addition, rusty pipes connected to your roofing and gutter may indicate these problems.
- Gutter Repair
If you see siding stains and plant growth in your gutter, you may consider checking it. More likely, some of its parts may already have cracks or holes that may lead to more damage in it. If cleaning isn’t enough, you may need to fix or replace a portion of it completely.
- Roof Replacement
If leaks are evident in various roof spaces and water damage becomes apparent, you may need a new roof.
In most cases, your roofline is already sagging if your entire roofing needs replacement. In deciding whether to repair or replace your roof, you may consider the extent of leaks and damage.
3. Notify The Tenants
Since you may intrude on tenants’ privacy, a detailed notice is crucial. You may notify them beforehand through a call or message.
You may also talk to them personally to explain the need for repairs or replacement. Never proceed to fix your property’s roofing without the knowledge of your tenants.
Informing your tenants gives them time and space to move their valuables that may be affected during the repairs.
For better results, you may consider including the provisions about repairs in your lease or tenancy contract so that both parties have ideas on what to do if repairs occur.
4. Do It Yourself Or Seek The Pros
If you decide to do the repairs yourself, you may prepare all the tools and equipment needed. You may also need to wear appropriate clothing to ensure that you’ll carry out your job safely.
Keep in mind that DIY roof repairs are only suitable if the damage is minor and won’t require a lot of workers and budget.
For better DIY repairs, you may check the best tutorial videos to upskill you. However, if the roofing problems may be more complex than they seem at first, you may need to call a professional contractor to accomplish the job.
Generally, contractors provide a set of roofing services that do more than mere repairs. These may include:
- basic roofing repairs and replacement
- roofing maintenance
- ventilation improvement
- shingle and underlayment installation
- vent installation
Apart from various services, most roofing contractors could do their jobs thoroughly because of their process. They could start with ripping off the old roof and adjacent portions.
Then, they may repair the roof bed where shingles will be laid before installing the drip edge. The necessary roof covering and flashing vents come next.
When hiring, consider the contractor’s reputation in the industry. You may visit their websites or brick-and-mortar spaces to check if they could provide the services you need and want.
You may also request renovation and maintenance improvement to reduce the risks of damage in the future.
5. Evaluate The Repairs
After the repairs, you may check your property personally. You may take pictures after finishing the job.
You may compare these photos with those you took during the assessment. Referring to the initial checklist could also help your post-repair evaluation.
If you’re unsatisfied with some of the outcomes, you may contact the contractor if you hired one. So, it’s necessary to point out the portions you think need further repairs and more appropriate solutions.
Wrapping Up
Owning a rental property entails a lot of responsibilities. It may require you to improve your social skills to deal with your tenants appropriately.
In addition, you may need vital management skills to facilitate timely payments. You may also require the necessary property maintenance, such as winter cleaning and repainting, to keep your property presentable and sturdy through different seasons.
Apart from these, you may need to handle structural problems like roofing issues. If you’re planning to fix your roof soon, this article should help you.
Although it doesn’t guarantee that it’ll save you all the troubles, it may provide you the tips and tricks on how to handle roofing problems without much hassle.