“Does roof maintenance change if my house is under heavy tree cover?”
Summary:
Jeremiah confirms that maintenance depends heavily on location. For homes with heavy tree coverage he recommends blowing debris off the roof at least a couple of times a year, either by hiring someone or doing it personally. In heavily wooded parts of Snohomish County such as Gold Bar, Sultan, and Monroe, he also suggests bringing in an arborist to monitor the trees for dead limbs so branches do not come down onto the house, framing this as being proactive rather than reactive. He notes that proximity to the coast is another factor, since heavier moss growth occurs there. His recommendation is to have the roof looked at a couple of times a year, keep it blown out, and consider gutter covers. He closes by urging homeowners to monitor their roof even without surrounding trees, asking when they last looked in the attic space, inspected their shingles, or had a professional perform a thorough evaluation.
Answer:
Absolutely. So yes, roof maintenance will depend greatly on the location where you're at. For example, if you have heavy tree coverage, I would recommend either you're hiring somebody, or if you're brave enough getting up there yourself and blowing that debris off the roof at least a couple times a year. I mean, if you're in a heavily wooded area, say Gold Bar, Sultan, Monroe, big parts of Snohomish County, and you have massive trees around the house, not only would I encourage that you're blowing off that debris, but you're also looking at maybe an arborist to come out and monitor these trees, see if there's any dead limbs in the trees, so you're not having these branches come down and unfortunately hit your house. Nobody wants to deal with that in the heat of the moment. There's a branch on our house, it hit our roof, we need to start calling people. Be proactive versus reactive in those situations. But yes, maintenance will vary based on what you have around you. Are you directly on the coast is another key factor, because there is heavier moss growth that will occur on the coast. And then same thing if you have heavy tree coverage. So having your roof looked at a couple times a year with that blown out, gutter covers, things like that, those are all very, very important to the overall health of your roof. And monitoring it, even if you don't have a lot of trees around, I think is very important. When's the last time that you looked in your attic space? When's the last time that you looked at your shingles or had a professional come out and give you a thorough evaluation? Those are key factors.