As you scurry about trying to keep up with all of the cleaning and maintenance work that your home needs each season, it's easy to forget about things like your roof and gutters. When these things are ignored for too long, repair needs can increase greatly. Here, you'll find a few tips that'll help you identify roofing issues and tips to help you protect the condition of your roofing and gutters.

Yearly Inspections

To minimize the impact of roofing damage, it's imperative that it's caught as early as possible. If a roofing leak is allowed to persist for several months, or even years, the damage will extend beyond the roofing materials and can seep into the attic and interior walls and cause all kinds of problems.

Schedule a yearly inspection with your local roofing professional such as Welty Custom Exteriors, Inc. He or she will be able to look things over and make any recommendations that will protect the condition of the roof for the next year.

Pay Attention to Gutter Contents

When you clean your gutters out, make sure to pay attention to what you're cleaning out of the gutters. This is true if you have asphalt shingles. You see, as asphalt shingles age, the sandy, gritty surface that protects the home begins to wear off. When it rains, the loose grit washes off of the roof and ends up in the gutter.

When you clean the gutters, look for the sandy finish of the shingles in the gutters. If there's a lot of it, the shingles are failing and will need to be updated soon.

Keep the Trees Trimmed

Your home shouldn't have any tree limbs hanging over it, or rubbing up against it. When trees hang over the home, the debris that falls from the trees provides moss and algae the dirt that it needs to root – and the shade prevents the sun from drying out the roofing materials which leads to moss and algae growth and wood rot.

You don't have to remove the trees entirely, but you do have to get them trimmed back enough to keep the roof clear and dry.

Metal roofing requires much less work than asphalt shingles do, and it lasts much longer, so if it's time for you to upgrade the roofing on your home, talk with your local metal roofing contractor to discuss what you'd like to see happen to your home. Hopefully, this time next year, you'll be focusing on things that are much more fun than cleaning gutters and inspecting shingles.