The attic is the part of your home that breathes throughout the year. This area allows for the free exchange of air through vents in the walls, roof, and openings in the eaves. Unfortunately, all these openings mean that the attic is colder than the main part of your home. If you leave the attic without any insulation it will allow heat energy to enter through the house, drawing your warmth away with it.

Roofing companies know how important attic insulation is for keeping your home warmer and cooler, it’s also important for your roof. Let’s see how.

How the Attic Can Damage Your Roof

Roofs are designed to slough off rainwater and stand up to the cold and snow in winter. In fact, roofing systems are installed with the idea that they will be placed over a cold attic space. If your attic isn’t insulated, it may be much warmer than expected in the winter.

How is a warm attic bad for your roof?

In the winter, snow tends to collect on the roof before being melted away by the sun, blown away, falling off, or even getting brushed off by you. It’s supposed to stay snow until it melts and runs into the gutters on warm days.

However, a warm attic can prematurely start to melt the snow in winter. When this warm air rises out of the attic, it will melt the snow causing some of the liquid to melt and run into the gutters. But the majority stays and mixes with snow forming an ice dam when the winter weather gets even colder. This can happen when the sun goes down or on a freak warm day.

The ice that builds up can cause the roof to sag, drop into the gutter, or create massive leaking when it does start to melt in warm weather.

Stopping the Attic from Harming the Roof

You can easily prevent future ice cams and melting snow by installing some attic insulation to prevent that transfer of heat energy from inside the home. It’s recommended that you add insulation to the floor of the attic. Insulation will stop the heat from leaving your home in winter.

If you want additional protection consider installing insulation between the rafters just underneath the roof. This helps prevent heat loss again and keeps snow from melting on the roof and create pooling water. You can maximize protection with insulation on the floor and on the underside of the roof.

Homeowners who want to make the most of their attic or who have converted it to a living space may want to use insulation only on the rafters.

As a San Francisco roofing company, Mr. Roofing specializes in helping homeowners resolve the problems associated with their roofs, gutters, and home insulation. If you would like a free consultation with one of our roofing contractors, give us a call or fill out our online form today. We can also set up a virtual phone call to give customers a free quote and consultation with an expert.

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