Roof Checklist for Winter Cleaning

A time will come when you need to conduct extensive cleaning around your commercial building during winter. Even if cleaners work every day to keep the entire facility neat, they might miss specific areas. Usually, these areas take too much of their time and are more difficult to clean. 

The roof is one part of your building that is more challenging to maintain. Your building’s exterior will always get riddled with tons of snow, and dirt can also get trapped under the thick snow.

If you want to keep your roof cleaned efficiently, you need to create a winter cleaning checklist that outlines all cleaning tasks.  

1. Start with Your Roof’s Gutters

You can find that flat roofs accumulate snow over time, slowly damaging them. You might fail to notice the snow placing a ton of pressure, and there are usually rooftop gutters that help redirect rainwater away from the roof.

Keep in mind that snow will also accumulate on top of the gutters, which may cause problems. 

Failing to remove the snow from the gutters can also cause rainwater to overflow from the roof and pour to the building’s side, splashing over open windows or people standing near the building.

It can also come in contact with exposed building components like electrical panels. 

Fortunately, you can protect them by installing coastal zone access panels. Not only can they keep your exterior building components safe from potential rainwater, but it also withstands high wind pressure and extreme temperatures. 

2. Conduct the Necessary Inspections

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Another thing you have to include in the next step in your roof cleaning checklist is roofing inspections.

It’s not enough for your building’s cleaning personnel to conduct the assessments because they might lack the skills or knowledge to execute them correctly.

It’s better that you hire a roofing contractor with years of experience because they can find the tiniest up to the most complex problems on your roof and resolve them right away. 

Tiny cracks on the roof can let snow or rainwater inside your commercial building, causing additional problems that will require you to spend more.

Issues like electrical damage can happen if you don’t seal the cracks on your roof as quickly as possible.

You can sleep peacefully during the winter night knowing that a roofing contractor inspected your building’s roof and resolved all problems right away. 

The inspector will look for loose flashing and shingles during the roofing inspections because leaks start inside the building. It’s the trickiest problem to look for because they need to inspect each shingle and flashing.

You may need to hire multiple roofing inspectors if you want them to finish faster.

Remember that resolving minor issues more quickly can prevent them from turning into big ones that might be costly and complicated to handle. 

3. Cut or Trim Tree Branches Around the Building

Commercial building owners might plant trees around their property to add more curb appeal. However, they might miss that the trees will grow and branches can reach the roof over the months.

Remember that snow can stay on the branches and fall, adding more weight.

You don’t have to hire roofing contractors to cut the branches if your maintenance personnel can do it themselves.

They can use a saw or chainsaw to cut off extending branches by stepping on the roof or propping a ladder on the tree.

If your maintenance personnel doesn’t have the experience or equipment to get it done, you can hire tree removal services.

4. Check Your Building’s Attic

Your roofing inspector might not find any problems with the roof’s exterior surface. The issues might appear in your building’s attic because the roofing material can sometimes hide them.

If your commercial building has an attic, make sure that the roofing inspector can check it for underlying problems that can become complicated issues in the future. 

They usually find problems, including holes, cracks, or even animals that found their way in to gain shelter from the winter cold.

If they find more than a few critters running around, it’s time to contact animal control because it’s out of the roofing inspector’s hands. The creatures might cause life-threatening diseases like rabies

Not only can the critters spread diseases, but they can damage the attic when building their nests.

They can chew off drywall or the roof to give them access in and out of the attic when searching for food. The entry points they created can let rainwater, snow, and the cold pass through the attic. 

Don’t forget to include the four steps mentioned above in your roof winter cleaning checklist.

You have to keep your roof maintained at all times to avoid getting costly roofing repairs every month. More importantly, make sure only to hire a reputable and licensed contractor.

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