Storm Damage to Your Roof After Drought

September 3, 2015 Laura MacCormac

The wild wind storm on Saturday in the Lower Mainland was a reminder to us all that we need to be better prepared. Whether it’s flooding, wind or an earthquake, we need to do as much as we can to prevent the expensive damage to your roof that happens in these situations.

Trees were totally uprooted, branches flew everywhere, power outages affected almost all of us. The trees were weak because they were dehydrated from our summer-long drought.

The problems you can face aren’t just from flying tree branches.  The warming of the Pacific leads to heavy rain falls that cause flooding.  The preceding drought has weakened roof membranes causing cracks, splits and openings.

Has the drought caused your roof to weaken and crack? There could be areas of the roof that have weakened. This can be found in an assessment.

On this roof we found 20 places where nails had sunk and shingles were popping. When it rained, it leaked through the openings.

We saw splits in membranes all over town from the weekend storm. We patched and sealed them all.
Drains and gutters need to be clear, and even then, loose debris will clog it during a storm, so they need to be continually cleared.

A little pooling water on a roof is usually harmless, but heavy rain will cause more than a little pooling. Are all paths to the drain cleared?
Our advice is to get an assessment done before the next big storm. We can help prevent the damage.