Bad Bay Area Weather This Week May Bring New Roof Leaks. Here’s how to track them down.

Whether you’re searching for a new roof leak to repair because a tenant found a dark spot on the ceiling; or you need a roofing contractor to assess and fix storm damage to your shingles or skylights, you need to take action quickly.

When leaks go unnoticed (or un-repaired), they can lead to mold and mildew damage and create structural problems that can render the building susceptible to indoor air pollution. Such problems can sicken people and lead to problems renting properties or even lawsuits.

Here are critical tips to locate potential roof leaks.

Start with the obvious. Do you see a water stain in the attic? Look on the roof area right above the attic. Rule out the obvious and likely problem areas first.

Use all your senses to find diverse signs of leaks. Hunt for water spots, bad smells, mold spots, areas of discoloration, or areas that have been damaged by leaks in the past.

Search these common problem spots: flashing, shingles, gutter areas, places near downspouts, areas around gaskets and air vents.

Don’t assume that the leak is right above the damaged or wet spot. Trouble spots can be far removed from the actual source of water penetration. For instance, maybe a leak that originated near the chimney has manifested a damp patch 15 feet away, above your child’s bedroom.

Use water to aid the search. Work with a partner, who can spray the roof with water, while you look for places where leaks emerge. Or just wait for a wet rainy day to find trouble spots.

Avoid trying to diagnosis your roof’s condition all by yourself. Even if you catch and repair a few leaks yourself, odds are that you might miss one or two trouble spots. If you miss these, your home could still become beset by mold, mildew and damage.

Get help from your Bay Area roofing contractors!

Call the Bay Area roofing repair specialists at Century Roof & Solar for assistance with your project now! Give us a call at (510) 780-9489.

Rather than give you a boring list of “ways to conserve” that you can find a million other places on the internet, we thought it might be interesting to turn the tables a bit.

To that end, here three surefire ways to waste our most precious natural resource:

1. Gush excess water on your lawn or garden.

NASA statistics suggest that each American, on average, dumps 200 gallons of H2O on our properties and gardens every single day. To waste even more water, cut your grass really short, water lawns during the hot afternoon hours so that more water will evaporate, and aim your sprinkler system haphazardly, so the water hits walls or pavement and thus evaporates.

2. Use and abuse your pool.

Pools are notorious water wasters. So, rather than use a sprinkler system – or a community pool – to enjoy summer water play, buy your own pool. Be sure to leave the top off, when it’s not in use, so that the maximum amount of water can evaporate. Also, be sure to change the water more frequently than the manufacturer recommends.

3. Crank up your home water consumption.

There are countless ways to waste water in your home. You can take extra long showers every morning and run your dishwasher when you only have few dishes or plates inside. Ignore your water bill and refuse to look for inefficiencies that you can easily correct… and that could save you tens of dollars a month in utility costs just for a few minutes of work.

Of course, this article is meant to be facetious. We really do want you to conserve water – not only to protect the environment here in and around the Bay Area but also to save you money.

Fortunately, “going green” — being a conservationist — does not mean that you have to pay more or do anything extravagant. Century Roof and Solar is the premier solar solution provider for the Bay Area. We can help you go green, handle construction and roofing needs, and answer any of your questions about going solar.

Find out more about us online at www.centuryroofandsolar.com or contact us toll free at (888) 233-7548

Image credit: ehow.com

Whether you expect monsoon-like thunderstorms to drench your home, condominium, or business, or you expect relatively light rainfall but worry because you live in an older home, you want a systematic way to check your roof for leaks before all the action begins.

The biggest challenge is finding the spot or spots that are leaking.

This is because the information you get from the leak itself (where the water is dripping) may tell you very little about where the actual problem spot is. For instance, water might penetrate through your roof at one location, run down for several feet or longer, and “leak” through a second location. Where you spot the damage – where the insulation is wet, shingles are rotting, etc. – is the distall (far) problem. You want to find the proximal problem (the root cause).

Grab a flashlight and a helper, and let’s get going.

You might want to do this leak hunting during a rainy day, since that’s when the leaks will be most active. If not, you can actually jerry-rig “fake rain” by spraying a hose on your roof. Head up into your attic (or the room right below the roof) and scour the sealing and other areas for water, damp spots, spots that “don’t look right,” or spots where the paint is blistering. Places where moisture can accumulate include gutters, shingles, gaskets, flashing, rubber seals around vents and pipes, and ridge caps.

Once you identify all the leaks (or possible leaks), wait until the rain stops (or turn off the water). Once things have dried off, go up on the roof while a helper stays in the room below. Turn on the water and use trial and error (communicating with your helper via a cell phone or a walky-talky) to identify the proximal location based on when the distill areas activate, when you spray water on the roof. Don’t flood potentially problematic areas, or you will have a harder time locating the proximal problem area.

If this all sounds too complicated, convoluted, or time consuming, you might be right. It might be a lot easier to connect with the Bay Area’s leader in lightweight roof systems, Century Roof and Solar.

For over a decade and a half, our Bay Area roofing contractors have helped East Bay residents and business owners solve their roofing problems permanently and affordably. Learn more about the solutions we can provide for you at www.centuryrooftile.com, or schedule a consultation with our Diamond-certified company by calling us at 888-233-7548.

Whether you’re about to embark on a major remodeling project that could take many months and require the services of multiple contractors; or you simply want to repair a roof that got damaged during a recent windstorm, you likely harbor worries about the process. Below, we discuss three of the biggest homeowner concerns:

1. Identifying the right price for the job.

You’d like to keep costs low for obvious reasons. On the other hand, you realize that if you accept the lowest bid simply because it’s the cheapest, you could set yourself up for disaster.  Lousy workmanship, missed deadlines, and chaos at the construction site can make you miserable and ultimately inflate project costs. In the worst case scenario, you may need to pay a second contractor to redo the first contractor’s botched job.

In an ideal world, you want a roofing company that’s going to be completely honest with you about pricing and that’s going to give you an excellent deal for your money – that is, the contractors will meet your needs and provide complete transparency of process.

2. A desire for the project to go smoothly, satisfyingly, cleanly, and without drama.

Homeowners who remodel fear (and rightly so) projects running over budget, running overtime frame, or simply running out of control. We all have heard horror stories from neighbors and friends who have hired the wrong contractors. The results are sadly predictable: construction debris and litter strewn over the lawn; property (such as garden plants) disrespected and stompedout of existence; rude, discourteous workers; “unexpected” delays and so on.

In an ideal world, you want the experience to be completely drama-free. Your contractor should demonstrate respect, courteousness, cleanliness, and the ability to manage internal projects so that they minimize disruption to your life and maximize efficiency and quality.

3. A desire for long-term value from the re-roofing.

What exactly constitutes “value”?  The answer boils down to quality over time. Your finished product – the roof that’s restored, repaired, or reinstalled – should add to your property’s value and your own well being simultaneously. Ideally, the roof should be made of sturdy, durable, high-quality components from manufacturers who employ the best standards, and should minimize the likelihood that you will have to “re-repair” the work.

We at Century Roof and Solar employ only the best quality controlled products (such as roof and gutter products) from trusted manufacturers.  We have developed a reputation for delivering clean, quality, reliable, on-time results, and we’ve won awards for our customer satisfaction.  We are a Diamond Certified company, a proud member of the Better Business Bureau, and a member of the Committee for Firesafe Dwellings (a non-profit corporation). We have 15 years of experience, and we can handle jobs of immense complexity as well as jobs that have a tight time deadline.  Learn about how we can help you at www.centuryrooftile.com, or call us for a quote at 510-780-9489.