Summon Your Nashville Contractor For Existing Porch Add-Ons

Building on to your home is a series of ever progressing upgrades that take place over time. As your family grows, so does your home, with new kitchens and bedrooms added on to the original design as they are needed. For millions of families across America, this expansion often includes building a porch or a deck on to the exterior of the home. A wonderful place where the family can relax and enjoy the outdoors, these structures usually begin life as a simple platform, exposed to the elements.


At some point, the family gets the idea to build a cover onto the already existing porch structure. Whether you want to cover the entire deck, or just arrange for a roofed over portion to use in rainy weather, it is a wise idea to summon your Nashville contractor when making such an alteration to an already existing porch or deck.


The reason for this is simple: As your Knoxville roofing experts can tell you, roof structures tend to hold up far more securely when they are braced with a single supporting unit from the floor all the way to the ceiling. Simply nailing a couple of two by fours onto the outside of the deck railing isn't going to cut it when it comes to extending beams for roof support. Your existing deck is going to require major modifications and safety installations if it is going to hold up the finished roofing for any amount of time.

If you attempt to make such modifications without professional assistance, you run the risk of having your entire deck roofing collapse around you from lack of proper support. Your Knoxville roofing experts will be more than happy to help you install the roofing over your existing deck, while implementing all of the appropriate safety measures that your situation calls for.


If you bring your Nashville contractor from from the very beginning, you may be able to build a roof onto your existing porch without requiring any major modifications or rebuilding efforts. However, if you start making modifications without having an expert's assistance, you may very well muck things up to the point where your entire deck needs to come down.


Calling in the professionals to help with this add-on construction is the safest way to go about covering your deck or porch with a roof. To make sure that all of the necessary precautions are in place, and all of the bracing and extensions are done correctly, have your professionals help you from the very concept of the idea. They can help you learn what supports and braces you need in order to do the job yourself if you insist, or your Knoxville roofing expert can do the entire job for you, including matching your home's existing shingles. For the best results and the best safety possible, relying on expert opinions and assistance for your extension needs.

Tips From Your Knoxville Contractor On How To Spot Gutter Trouble

If you're like most Americans, you don't fancy the idea of dangling off a ladder two stories in the air unless you really have to. The reason why the average homeowner doesn't realize that their gutters are in trouble until they're falling off the house is because they don't understand the classic warning signs that a gutter system needs maintenance. Here is a brief guide from your Knoxville contractor to help you know when you need to clean out your gutters.


Visiting Wildlife


When you look up at your gutters and notice that you have animal visitors hanging around, don't think of it as a cute situation. As your Chattanooga roofing experts will tell you, animals that have made their homes inside your gutters mean that they have brought their home with them. This means your gutters are full of nests of twigs, piles of seeds and nuts, and possible offspring. Look for birds, squirrels, frogs, lizards, opossums, raccoons, mice, rats, and snakes in your gutter system. Evidence of their presence should be dealt with immediately.


Greenhouse Gardens


There are many places that your home should have plants growing around to share their beauty, but your gutters are not one of these locations. As your Knoxville contractor will tell you, seeing sprouts or seedlings peeking up from within your gutter is an immediate sign of trouble. If those plants are growing, it means that there is enough build-up of dirt and debris for them to take root in. As we all know, roots and homes don't mix well.


Erosion Lines


Around the base of your home, the landscaping should be nice and smooth. If you begin to notice visible erosion lines that mirror the lower-most level of your gutter system, then those gutters aren't hauling the water away like they should. As your Chattanooga roofing team will explain, these erosion lines are coming from where water is routinely escaping your clogged gutters and dripping onto the ground below. If it's been going on long enough to cause noticeable erosion lines on the ground, you have a serious problem in the gutters above.


Waterfall Spectacles


The next time you have a good rainstorm, grab an umbrella (unless it's lightning!) and take a stroll around your home. Look for any waterfalls coming from your gutter system. These occur around seams where different gutters meet, and are a classic sign of trouble, as your Knoxville contractor will tell you. Either there is a crack in the gutter at this location, something is blocking the water flow completely, or the gutter simply isn't up to the task at hand. Note these waterfall spots and have them inspected once the rain ends.

By keeping your eyes open for these four common warning signs, you can know when your home's gutter system is failing. Heed these warnings, and have your gutters cleaned and inspected before the system fails on you completely.

Tips From Your Tennessee Roofing For How To Spot Potential Roof Damage

In order to know when your roof needs to be repaired, you must know how to spot signs of weathering and weather damage on your shingles. Making the occasional visual inspection from the ground will alert you to potential problems on the parts of the roof that you can see, but monitoring those sections of the roof that you can't see from street level can make the job even trickier. Here's how to know when to call your Chattanooga roofing expert in to have a closer look.

Obvious Damage

There are occasionally times when you simply know that damage has occurred on your roof. Your Tennessee roofing professional should be called in for repairs without hesitation in the event that your area experiences extreme weather. When hailstones reach golf ball size, they are causing damage every time they impact your roof. If a large tree branch comes down on a section of your home, or a large chunk of debris blows in and lands on your shingles, you should assume that there has been damage and have it repaired immediately.

Fall Foliage

Those trees that provide shade around your home are beautiful, but the leaves that they drop on your roof are a potential source of damage. Unless you keep these leaves off your roof by removing them forcibly, they will begin to rot where they lay. This will result in sources of rot being introduced to the shingle surface, which can cause breaches in the water proofing that the shingles depend on. If you have leaves that have completely rotted away, and can clearly see the outlines they left behind, then you should summon your Chattanooga roofing expert to have a look.


Visible Mold

Mold is great, when it's on rocks and the sides of trees. When you can see spots of mold on your roof, you need to call in your Tennessee roofing specialist immediately. Where there is mold, there is moisture, and enough of a breach in your roof's defenses for the mold to have taken root to begin with. Although some homeowners consider mold on the roof to add an air of charm, it should be viewed as a dangerous situation and dealt with promptly to prevent further damage.


Interior Leaks

You hope to spot trouble on your roof before it comes to interior leaks, but sometimes the unexpected happens. When you wake to the rhythmic dripping of water on your carpet, grab a bucket and settle in for the long haul. Hope that this rainstorm doesn't last for the next three straight days, and summon your Chattanooga roofing specialist immediately. The problem with a leak is that where the water enters your home may not be anywhere near where the roof is letting the water in. Having the roof searched promptly is the only way to prevent this small leak from becoming a catastrophic roof failure.