Storm damage is one of the top reasons homes and businesses in Florida need roof repair or replacement. We’re known as the Sunshine State, but we sure see a lot of rain, sometimes accompanied by full-blown hurricanes. And when the wind picks up, your roof might, too.
How Wind Can Impact Your Roof
Hurricanes are bound to cause damage at some point, as they have extremely strong winds. According to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, a category 1 hurricane starts at 74 mph with “very dangerous winds will produce some damage,” while a category 5 hurricane can reach 157 mph or higher, and “catastrophic damage will occur.”
And those rains in between — the tropical depressions, tropical storms, and regular thunderstorms? Well, if you live here, then you’ve seen them yourself, and sometimes those “afternoon showers” can be worse than hurricanes, and they sometimes come damaging winds.
What Wind Damage Typically Looks Like
Wind damage is usually the result of a storm, but even if it’s not, identifying wind damage is pretty easy to do. Severe wind damage can mean parts of your roof are caved in, pulled up, or torn off. However, you can expect typical wind damage to look something like this:
- Debris on your roof
- Missing or damaged flashings
- Missing, curled, lifted, or curling shingles
- Clogged, overflowing, bent, or sagging gutters
- Leaks, stains, moisture, or dampness on your ceiling or near your windows
Since hurricanes, tornadoes, hailstorms, and even regular thunderstorms can cause wind damage to your roof, it’s important to know the “why” behind it. Sometimes, there’s an underlying cause that has been ignored or gone unidentified (like loose shingles); other times, there’s nothing wrong with your roof and the wind simply got the best of it.
Why Your Roof Could Come Off When It’s Windy
Natural disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes can easily cause wind damage, but it’s rare for a roof, or even part of a roof, to actually come off. It does happen sometimes, though.
When it does, it’s not really that the wind was actually so strong that it blew the roof off. It all comes down to air pressure. Inside, the air pressure is high; outside, the air pressure is low. So when a storm with low air pressure comes over a building with high air pressure, the difference in the air pressure causes the roof to be pulled upward — and there goes the roof!
Need Roof Repair or Replacement for Your Home?
Storms of all shapes and sizes come through all the time, and you never know if you’re going to wind up with storm damage to your roof. As roofers in St. Augustine, we understand the nature of this type of roof damage, and we can provide an honest assessment during inspection. So whether you need roof repair, roof replacement, or simply want to make sure your roof is in good shape, our team is here to help.
Our roofing company proudly serves those in Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra, St. Augustine, Nocatee, Ponte Vedra Beach, Palm Coast, Palatka, Gainesville, and the surrounding communities in Northeast FL. Give us a call at (904) 217-0227 or click here to schedule a free inspection.