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Your roof is one of the most important parts of your house, historical building or church. It keeps rain, snow and wind outside—keeping you and your family warm and cozy during the worst weather.
So, when it’s time to replace the old shingles on your roof, it’s vital that you hire a professional who provides this service during the right time of year.
Winter is the wrong season to repair your roof shingles. In this blog, you’ll learn seven reasons why you don’t want to re-shingle your roof in winter.
The Three Parts of a Roof Shingle
Asphalt is an oily substance that works best for warmer temperatures. In the spring, summer and fall, asphalt is flexible. But in the winter, this oily product becomes brittle—making it hard to work with.
Modern roof shingles are made from fiberglass and are coated on both sides with asphalt. The granular product on top of the roof shingles works to protect them from the sun’s heat and ultraviolet rays.
Additionally, the shingles’ hard surface protects the roof from storm damage—such as falling branches or other debris from strong winds.
The fiberglass mat holds the asphalt and the entire shingle together—while repelling water from your roof. Asphalt is a filler, giving shingles their thickness, bonding the granular and helping in repelling water away from your home or commercial building.
7 Reasons NOT to Re-Shingle Your Roof in Winter
Since asphalt plays a big role in re-shingling, it’s important to know that it doesn’t work well in cold temperatures. However, there are other reasons why re-shingling your roof is a bad idea during the coldest time of year.
Here are those seven main reasons:
Asphalt turns brittle in the cold: And when it turns brittle, it’ll crack, tearing the fiberglass mat at the same time. In fact, if shingles freeze, they’ll shatter upon impact.
Since nail guns shoot at a high velocity, your new shingles will shatter upon contact: Today’s shingles are held together with nails. Modern roofers use nail guns that shoot the nail into the shingle at a high rate of speed. In the cold, this high velocity will shatter the fiberglass.
No one will notice shatter points at first, but damage becomes evident years down the road: As a homeowner, you probably won’t even realize that your newly shingled roof has shatter points because it doesn’t become evident until many years later. Within 10 years, the asphalt will start to dry out resulting in your shingles shrinking. Areas that originally fit snugly will start to pull back and harden. And this is the time when the shatter lines become a problem. You’ll start to notice shingles slipping down because the nail tore through the shingle.
Your shingles will look out of place and will look as if they’re sliding down the roof: From the ground floor, it’ll look like you’re only missing a patch of shingles. However, if you climb up to your roof, you’ll notice that many, if not all of the shingles are sliding out of place.
Asphalt is not flexible in the cold so your shingles could develop cracks: Your roofer needs to bend the asphalt to develop a valley (a bend of 45°). Your roofer will have an easier time bending the asphalt during the warmer months, but during the winter, there is a high chance the shingles will crack due to the cold. These valleys are the most vulnerable to your roof because they keep water out of two sections of your roof. Cracked valleys lead to water leaking into your home or church.
Shingles are difficult to cut in the cold: Your chances of having jagged shingles is higher during the winter because shingles are difficult to cut in the cold. So, the outer edges of your roof won’t look clean and neat after the re-roofing job is finished.
The roof installers you hired to re-roof won’t be working at their best: Cold hands, bulky clothes and just trying to keep warm distract workers from doing their best work while working on your roof.
Don’t fall for any roofing company that’s willing to sell you a deal during the cold winter months. Sure, you’ll save some money for getting the job done—but you get what you pay for—less flexible materials and freezing roofers who may not do their best job for you.
If your historic building, home or church needs a new roof, you need Detroit Steeplejack to do the work for you. Call them today to schedule your re-roofing project for the spring at 313-335-7032 or fill out their contact form at the bottom of their homepage.