Maintenance Part 2

The law of Entropy is the second law of thermodynamics. It states that with time the net entropy will increase. Things will go from order to dis-order. Information that is complete will in time be lost. If you have a work shop you understand the struggles of entropy, if you do not constantly work to create order your shop will be a mess! 

The same goes for your body, house, car and even computer. Your body needs constant care to slow down the aging (Entropy). Your home needs protection from elements and other abuse such as gravity, children and pets to keep the home stable for years to come.  The car must have new oil, grease and parts if it's going to last but it also needs someone who won't drive it to the breaking point. Your computer shows entropy on the information level very well. With time your files can loose information and become corrupted. Only by winding the hands of time backwards to an earlier state in time when the information was still present can you recover the lost bits of information. It gives you another chance to maintain your systems information but if you drop the ball one day you may suffer a system crash. 

The roof is the outside surface on any building that suffers the most abuse. Paint can slow down the breakdown of siding and trim by protecting the wood from the sun's UV rays and moisture. Caulking will eventually fail on the home and must be inspected every so often if necessary removed and replaced. Electrical components may suffer corrosion similar to that of a car battery terminal and the cables connected to it, if different metals are used with fittings, typically a professional reduce this in a house. Heating and cooling systems require filters and Freon possibly new switches or belts. Most of the home is in a slow death. The foundation may settle after the first year of a home's construction and cause cracks to appear in the drywall, heavy snow loads can force windows stress over windows, doors so that they no longer close correctly. Furthermore, snow can break roof trusses, break ceiling joists so that a ceiling shows stress or cracks and even collapse the whole roof.

Most people who live with heavy winter snow fall understand the importance of removing snow from a roof when the inches pile up. Many will take it upon themselves to rake the roof. We often find scrapes and holes in flat roofs after a customer hired someone to remove the snow load and now suffers massive leaks from the punctures. We have also seen newer shingles aged to near the end point of the shingles life because the home owner hired someone to remove the snow and in the processes removed the granules that protect the base mat.

The Cure cannot be worse than the sickness

In the attempt to do good we cannot do more harm. We encourage home owners to maintain their homes and property but in the process of trying to remove weight from the roof structure we do not want them to destroy their roof system. Our advice is to always instruct the person who is doing the snow removal to leave a few inches of snow. Don't try to scrape it all off the little bit of snow that is left won't do any harm its the other 20" that will.

Roof cleaning or the lack of it can also cause major roof issues especially if your roof is under trees. A tree's debris will pile up and clock critical water ways causing the water to dam and find new routes around the blockages. We have seen this with ice that had dammed a valley, the snow melt had to crawl out of the valley 5 feet before it could continue it's pathway down. Gutters are other avenues of water evacuation that often suffer debris and dirt build up to the point water cannot evacuate fast enough and freeze within the gutter system. The awful result is a water dam that builds up along the eaves and cause massive leaks  within the building.  

The photo above is a familiar site to many home owners in the Yakima valley. The tree's in the background and the gutter full of ice pretty much sums it all up. Cleaning the gutters in the fall can drastically reduce the size of the ice dam or eliminate it all together. 

Here is a picture of a new roof install we did. The section of roof that this picture was taken was completed four days prior. Within that time we had some good rainfall and the rain carried the pine needles around the drain. Even though this system can be submerged under water, slow water evacuation can cause major issues. First water levels can build up and in this case could run over the wall structure, very unluckily but still possible. The bigger issue is during the winter months when heavy snow load begins to melt and the water cannot evacuate. What will occur now is that all that water will freeze into a heavy sheet of ice. With the drainage condition is worse as the ice has now blocked off more of the screen of the drain, the ice level also has brought up the elevation of the area so that new snow melt will grow away from the drain center. Now the roof is in serious danger if snow fall continues to add weight beyond what the building structure can support.

At Yakima Roofing & Remodeling, LLC we have provided subscription plans for building owners to help them solve these issues. By subscribing to any combination of our programs that we offer we can take the worry out of your roof system by keeping it maintained and cleaned. Furthermore when the time does come that it can no longer be maintained we will let you know before it becomes critical. In fact we hope to give you plenty of time to plan and budget for a new roof long before you need one. 

We now offer Exterior home Maintenance programs designed to help you keep the whole envelope of your home maintained. This service is a foundation to roof service that will check everything from soil drainage issues, foundation, caulking, windows, doors, siding, trim, paint, electrical and deck and patios and more!

I once saw a study where people who lived in poverty said that because good quality foods are so expensive that, that was the reason they spent so much on fast foods. The interviewer then asked them if they had been on any medications and most responded yes. The math was worked out that it was even more expensive to buy the monthly prescription then it was to buy healthier foods that would have helped prevent the issue in the first place.

The reason why homes fall into disrepair is that people believe they can't afford to fix the little thing's and with time more little thing's break until the whole condition is worsened. Often times driving through the Yakima Valley we will see a few shingles on a home missing. These shingles will remain missing for years. The cost to repair is very cheap to begin with but over time the damages caused by water seeping in causes thousands of dollars in damages.

If you cannot afford a repair don't be afraid to give us a call we will try to find a way to help you prevent it from being a bigger issue and work with you to make the repair affordable.