If you live in Nevada, you’re aware of the extreme weather conditions: intense sun, harsh winters, and blustery winds. You might not be mindful of how these conditions can affect your roof. In Nevada, there are a lot of high winds throughout the year, and these can cause damage to your roof (without storms or hail). When the winds are strong enough – around 50-90 mph – they can begin to uplift your shingles, rip apart materials, or drag debris onto your roof, leading to further damage. So with all this wind, how can you ensure your roof is maintained? First, let’s take a look at what high winds can do to your roof in sun blasted Nevada.
Storm Winds
In areas like Nevada, which experiences 45 mph or higher winds, there is additional wear and tear on your roof. Here are a few of the ways high storm winds could damage your roof:
- Debris on the roof: Anything from a fallen tree limb to a pile of leaves.
- Damaged shingles: When high winds occur, they can often cause your roof’s shingles to go missing, come loose, or possibly start to curl. This often occurs along your roof’s edges, corners, and flashing. You may also notice lifted, cracked, or buckled shingles around your chimney.
- Debris in gutters: Hail and high winds can often cause granules (the sandpaper-like part of the shingle) to come loose. To determine if you have missing granules, make sure to check your gutter since this is where they tend to pile up.
- Damaged gutters: High wind can often dent or loosen your rain gutter, or in some extreme cases, cause it to fall off entirely!
- Leaky roof: Following a high wind event that includes rain, it’s always good to check your top-floor ceilings or attic to see if there are any leaks.
Rain Damage
Like storm winds, an intense downpour or series of rainstorms can also cause significant roof damage. Here are a few ways your roof could become damaged by rain:
- Shingle damage: over time, heavy rains can wear down singles and other elements of your roof. Lost shingles leave your roof exposed, allowing for water damage to penetrate the roof deck and, if left exposed for too long, could compromise the structural integrity of your home.
- Damaged Soffit or Fascia: these elements keep water away from the roof, reducing your chances of experiencing a leak.
- Leaky roof: similar to storm winds, rain damage, can lead to rot or mold inside your home, as well as provide challenges for the structural integrity of your home.
Sand Winds
Although not unique to Nevada, this high desert state does experience its fair share of sand winds. Here are some of the ways sand winds can damage your roof:
- Stripping Damage: High winds mixed with sand can weaken your shingles’ self-seal strip, causing the shingles to blow completely off. From there, it’s often a domino effect for other shingles to come off.
- Debris in Gutters: Like storm winds, sand winds can also cause debris build-up in your gutters – from granule loss on your shingles to basic sand build-up.
With all this potential wind damage, what can you do to protect your roof? To start, if you’re concerned about potential damage to your roof, we offer 24-hour Emergency Service for leak repairs. Our team will provide clear and timely communication every step of the way. Once we conduct our site visit, if additional repair work is needed, we’ll provide a proposal or our recommendations and associated roof repair costs.
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