Since winter’s just around the corner (however, we do have a couple of months ahead of us), we can say that right now’s the right time to think about handling some much-needed roof repairs before the coldest part of the year steps onto the stage (and here’s how you’ll handle it with ease). Many folks around the country dream of doing home repairs in a casual DIY manner. However, is that the best way to take care of your home? To be completely honest, we doubt it. Roof repair mainly consists of difficult elevated work we’d rather leave to professionals. To underline this point, today we’ll show you the biggest risks of DIY roof repair.
#1 You misjudge what’s wrong with the roof
First, you could be wrong about diagnosing the issue your roof’s dealing with. In other words, you might be able to notice that your roof’s in great need of repair, but you might be struggling to pinpoint the issue and what you must do to resolve it. Not to mention that if you improperly diagnose the problem, there’s a fat chance you’ll also mishandle the fixing process. Also, you’ve probably only had your roof to deal with during your DIY home projects, meaning that you have no baseline to compare with. On the other hand, professional roofers have seen various roofs and diagnosed them a million times (not to be taken literally), so there’s no way they’ll misdiagnose your roof or “come up” with an improper way of fixing it.
#2 You’re putting your safety in jeopardy
Of course, safety should be one of your biggest concerns during DIY roof reparation. It’s probably the most troubling issue we’ll consider today. By attempting a DIY repair, you might also endanger the safety of others. Here’s the thing: the whole process demands you to follow strict safety measures in order to minimize the chances of something going awry. Now, one shouldn’t be surprised that most of these safety measures are typically ignored by DIY roofers. Even if you don’t overlook any safety precautions, you probably aren’t experienced at elevated work or might be lacking the right tools. Therefore, the risk of injury’s very high once you’re trying to do it yourself. All in all: there’s nothing more valuable than your health and well-being, and the potential funds you’d save by handling roof issues in a DIY manner can’t substitute for it.
#3 DIY roof repair usually doesn’t save money
Now, let’s go back to the last sentence in the previous paragraph. Many folks opt for DIY roof repair because they imagine they’ll save themselves some funds along the way. However, you’ll want to know that DIY roof reparation probably won’t save you any money. Quite the contrary! Even if the entire process doesn’t directly cost more money, it will almost certainly last longer. That’s because you’re most probably lacking the necessary tools and experienced workforce. Your lost time will, without any doubt, cost you more than hiring professionals to handle the task.
#4 DIY repair might complicate the sale of your home
Before you sell your home, there’s always the process of home inspection. When inspecting a new home, professionals will also perform a roof inspection to ensure everything is in order before the new owners begin to move in. Since roof health can significantly influence the cost of a property household, they’ll want to pay special attention to it. Now, let’s say that you’re lacking some roofing experience. If that’s so, chances are that you’ll do something incorrectly. For instance, you could install your new roof shingles in a way that causes water to seep into the home. That way, you could put your home at risk of rain damage or other issues related to extreme weather conditions.
The home inspector will undoubtedly pick up on any mistakes you’ve made. Any necessary repairs are the responsibility of the seller. If there are any glaring flaws, the prospective buyers will either back out of the purchase or ask you to lower your selling price
#5 You might do some additional harm to your roof
Along with jeopardizing your safety, this is probably one of the most significant risks of DIY roof repair. Unfortunately, you may do additional damage to your home’s roof instead of repairing it. We’ll provide you with a couple of examples:
- Walking on hot shingles might tear them and do away with surface granules.
- Putting a nail in the wrong spot might cause a leak.
- Taking up shingles might result in doing some extra damage to the adjacent ones.
Now, of course, if you get creative, we are sure you could cause even more damage to your home. However, these were one of the most apparent issues you can inadvertently cause by handling a DIY roof repair.
#6 You could invalidate your insurance
Insurance is there for a good reason since some mishaps are way beyond our control, even though we’d like to imagine otherwise. The moving experts from Divine Moving and Storage tell us that most of their clients avoid making DIY home improvements, so they don’t void their insurance. Let’s say a massive storm has hit your town and left your roof severely damaged. The first thing a regular person should do is contact their insurance company. As you can expect, they’ll try to estimate the damage done to your roof. If they notice you’ve done something on your own up there, they’ll most probably oppose your claim because you’ve compromised your roof’s safety & integrity by doing a DIY repair. Check up your insurance policy if you don’t believe us.
#7 Lastly, let’s talk about poorly chosen materials
One of the biggest risks of DIY roof repair is choosing the wrong materials. Choosing the wrong (type of) materials will most probably result in further repairs. As we’ve underlined above, you’ll lose more money in the long run. And even if you opt for the correct type of materials or high-end products, they still won’t mean much if poorly installed.
Final thoughts
Alright, so that’s about all there’s to say about the biggest risks of DIY roof repair. We’ll take a “wild guess” and say that you’ll probably steer clear of such ideas once you prepare your roof for the upcoming season. Anyway, remember that professional roof repair is the safest and the most efficient way of handling any issues you’ve got up there.
