When it’s time to replace your roof, it’s good to understand all the roofing accessories that go into making a roof water tight. A properly-installed roof includes much more than just asphalt shingles or corrugated metal. These elements of a roof help to fight against water infiltration and deck damage. At Re-New Roofing & Remodeling, we insist on re-roofing your house with all the bells and whistles that guarantee to make your roof secure for decades to come.
Conventional wisdom says a roof can be re-shingled up to three times without tearing off previous layers. However, at PRS, we insist on tearing off in order to get the best possible result. It also is a staunch condition of our unrivaled warranty.
A good place to start in preventing water from entering your house is by protecting the wood. Whether it be the wooden decking that acts as the subsurface of your roof, or the wooden trim known as fascia, water will eventually rot the wood and penetrate to the interior. Aluminum drip edge is installed at the very edge of your roof, around the outsides. This creates a barrier between the outside elements and the place where wooden decking and wooden fascia join together.
Roofing Accessories: Ice and Water
From there, two feet of a special water-resistant covering called “ice and water shield” is attached to the roof for the first two feet up and in all the valleys. Underlayment, a specialized covering is added next over the entire roof. All these elements help protect the wood roofing materials from moisture.
These elements of a modern roof work very effectively on a roofing surface that is one plane, with no valleys or roof protrusions. However, this type of roof surface is the exception, and not the rule. Most roofs have multiple sections and when they meet in a concave joint, or valley, additional steps are required to help prevent leaks.
Roofing Accessories: Pipe flashing
This also holds true for protrusions, such as vents or vent pipes. Any time the surface of the roof is interrupted, it creates a vulnerability that produce leaks, if not addressed properly. To prevent this, various types of flashing, usually made of thin metal such as aluminum, are used.
Flashing is used in valleys, but also along vertical walls extending from the roof and around fixtures, such as vents and pipes. By using thin metal, a solid, impervious barrier can channel water off the roof and away from the house.
In a roof’s valley, a layer of metal flashing provides the last line of defense against water infiltration. A properly-installed layer of flashing acts as a veritable trough to direct all water off the roof, using gravity. Step flashing is used where roof surfaces meet vertical walls. A piece of step flashing is a piece of metal — usually aluminum — that is vent to a 90 degree angle. Each piece covers about eight to 10 inches of distance. The pieces are overlapped, beginning at the low point of the roof. Any water that should penetrate the other layers of roofing would naturally travel down the step flashing. From there it is led off the roof and away from the house.
Lastly, specialized flashing is used to provide protection around protrusions.
Re-New Roofing & Remodeling is the local expert on all roofing accessories, using these materials to ensure customers have years of peace of mind under their new roofs.