Spring Maintenance Check

It may not seem like it after yesterday's storm, but spring is here, and warmer weather is right around the corner. Now is the time to think about what that means for your house (or your company's building), if you haven't done it already. Here's a list to help you out:

Screens

Last year there was the Zika virus. With luck, the worst thing we'll get if biting flies and mosquitoes come inside will be uncomfortable bites, but it's far better to be prepared. It doesn't take long to be sure that all your screens are in place and in good condition.

Roof

What did your roof look like this winter? Did you have problems with ice dams? Did the snow melt in a geometric pattern? Can you see any dips or wavy lines in your roof? If you answered yes to any of these, either your roof or your attic needs work before it sees another winter.

Structural Check

It's always a good idea, especially with newer houses, to do a quick walk-through in the springtime to check for any structural damage that may have occurred over the winter. Signs to watch for are windows or doors that don't open and close easily, new cracks in walls (including foundation walls), and groups of nails that have come partially out of place.

Your Cooling Bill

The air is chilly and there's snow on the ground, which means that now is the perfect time to take care of your air conditioning needs for the summer. If you wait until you need it, there may be availability issues. And this way, you may be able to decide what you want and then wait for a sale. Two more important factors to consider are insulation and windows.

Outdoor Living

Now is also a good time to get started on planning patios, porches, decks and other outdoor living spaces you'll want to use this summer.

Thanks,

NH Construction

Looks Like We're in for Another Cold Winter

The Old Farmer's Almanac is predicting another cold, snowy winter this year.

We wish we could tell you that you suffered enough last winter, so you're going to be rewarded with a mild winter this year. Unfortunately, the predictions are saying the opposite. Maybe it's like sports: win one challenge, and your reward is the chance to train for an even bigger one.

But if you're thinking of resigning yourself to another winter full of ice dams and frozen pipes, think again. Most of those problems don't actually come from cold temperatures or lots of snow. They happen when houses aren't ready for New Hampshire winters. The good news is that if a house is built right, you won't need to shovel the roof or worry about structural damage, even if we get as much snow as we did last year.

The bad news is that the majority of houses built in New Hampshire are not built like that. Sometimes this is due to the ignorance of the builders, but more often it's because they knew better and still chose to cut corners to save costs.

What can you do to help your house weather the weather this winter? There are just four major things to address:

• The roof. Make sure the sheathing and the shingles are in good shape. Check the rafters to ensure that they are close enough together and thick enough for your roof type and slope, and that none of them is cracked or rotting. Replace anything that's damaged or worn out, and shore up the structure if you need to.
• Strength of the structure. Be sure that your strong roof has a strong house and foundation to sit on. Remember that the purpose of all the structural elements of the house is to safely transfer that weight to the earth.
• Sealing up drafts. A lot of times, frozen pipes and other winter damage is due to leaks where warm air rushes out of the house or cold air blows in. Look for little cracks and holes, especially around doors and windows, and where the main house meets the foundation.
• Insulation. From the foundation to the roof, there's no substitute for insulation. Insulation, along with ventilation, prevents ice dams and dangerous icicles. It reduces material stress due to expansion and contraction, and it can protect your pipes from freezing.

While every house has different needs, most winter issues fall under one of these categories.

Thanks,

New Hampshire Construction

Renovating New Hampshire Soffits

What do your soffits look like? Are they working properly? What are soffits, anyway? Most New Hampshire houses have soffits, and if they're not working properly, that could lead to problems.

What are soffits?

On most New Hampshire houses, if you stand under the overhang of a pitched roof and look up, you'll be looking at the soffit.

How do they work? What are they supposed to do?

Soffits serve two important roles in a house. First, they block the roof off from mice, squirrels, and other creatures who may want to build their nests in there and ruin your insulation. Second, they work in combination with ridge vents to allow airflow through the roof. Without sufficient airflow, condensation is likely to collect in your roof. That could lead to mildew, mold, dripping, rotting, and possibly even ceiling collapse.

The old way

Older soffits were often made of plywood or even boards, with metal vents installed at regular intervals.

The new way

Today, soffits are usually made of perforated vinyl. They don't need to be painted, and installation is less labor-intensive because they don't need custom holes cut for the vents.

Renovating soffits

In many cases, new soffits can be installed without fully removing the old ones. In this example from a recent job, we're removing the old vents and installing the new perforated vinyl soffits over (literally, under) the old wooden ones.

Thanks,

New Hampshire Construction

Did This Winter's Weather Make Your Roof Leak?

A lot of New Hampshire home and business owners have seen their roofs damaged from the weather this winter. Heavy snow loads have weakened and even broken a lot of rafters. Leaks caused by ice dams have created a lot of water damage. And plenty of shingles and gutters need to be replaced.

But none of this is the fault of the weather alone. Believe it or not, a well-built New Hampshire roof can handle the kind of winter we just had with no problem. It's only roofs that were in need of repair, or built too cheaply to begin with, that had any trouble.

If your roof did get beaten up by the weather this winter, the bad news is that it was already not in great shape before the snow came. But the good news is that you can prevent these problems in future years, even if we get the same kind of weather.

The ideal New Hampshire roof has:

 

 A strong structure and a pitch that fits the climate

Have you ever wondered why a Roman villa has a flat roof, but an alpine chalet has a steep one? It's not just a matter of culture. Steep roofs not only shed more snow, but can hold a lot more weight, too. How steep a New Hampshire roof needs to be depends on how strongly built it is. Or, to put it another way, how strongly it needs to be built depends on how steep it is.

Plenty of insulation

No matter how strong your roof is, it still isn't likely to make it through a winter like this one without damage unless it's properly insulated. Roof insulation does more than just help reduce your heating bills and your carbon footprint; it's an essential part of the roof. Inadequate insulation can result in ice dams, excessive icicles, damaged shingles and leaks. And of course, leaks cause their own chain of water damage and rot.

Adequate venting

Leaks are not the only thing to cause dripping ceilings, water spots and rotting in a house. This water may not even be coming from outdoors if your roof is not properly vented. The air naturally has some moisture in it, and activities like cooking and breathing add even more. Without sufficient venting, this moisture will collect and destroy your house.

The Right Way to Handle Snow and Ice on Your Roof

 

Modern roofing materials are manufactured to stand up to decades of rough weather. But they are not

meant to be scraped with shovels or hit with hammers.

Don't try to clear all the snow off: leave half an inch still on there. Asphalt shingles, especially, are very brittle in the winter, and you can easily damage them and create roof leaks. But even if that doesn't happen, scraping the shingles will take years off their life. If you have rubber roofing, then a little hit from the corner of your shovel could gouge a hole. The point is to take most of the weight off and relieve the stress on the rafters.

It may be tempting to try to physically remove all the ice from your roof, but that would tear it up. The best plan of attack is to break the ice off below the eaves to remove most of the weight, and then use calcium chloride to melt channels into the ice and let it fall off by itself. Make sure you are using calcium chloride, not rock salt or magnesium chloride.

When to Call in a Contractor

 

Sometimes hiring a contractor is less expensive than doing the job yourself. For example, Ice dams and icicle clusters can be very heavy and fall in unpredictable directions. Chipping off roof ice is a lot like felling a tree: it takes a lot of training and experience to learn how to control the fall. Not hiring a professional in this case could cost you a window, or even your life.

Thanks,

New Hampshire Construction

Should You Shovel Your Roof?

Roof shoveling is a cold, hard job, and nobody wants to do it unless it's necessary. But you don't want to risk having your roof collapse on you, either. So how do you know whether your roof needs it?

There are a few factors to consider:

• The depth of the snow on the roof
• The size of the roof
• The strength of the roof
• The pitch (steepness) of the roof
• Ice dams

Weight and Strength

It's pretty intuitive: how much snow a roof can take depends on how strong it is. Smaller roofs will naturally be stronger, per square foot, than larger roofs. This is because there's a shorter distance between the uprights (walls or porch support posts, for example). So each rafter has a shorter span and can hold more weight per square foot without sagging.

Structural Strength

How much weight your roof can take will also depend on how beefy the rafters are, how far apart they were placed, whether any of them are starting to rot, and whether the house was put together correctly. Modern construction standards call for rafters to be made of at least 2x8 lumber (ideally, 2x10) and be placed 16 inches apart.

Roof Pitch

If you got good grades in geometry, you can probably visualize how your roof's pitch affects its strength. Generally speaking, the steeper the roof is, the more its weight is transferred down to the outer walls. So a steeper roof can handle more snow without endangering its rafters.

Ice Dams

Ice dams can occur when a roof is not sufficiently insulated. Heat leaks out through the roof and melts the snow that's sitting on top of it. That melted snow runs to the edge of the roof and starts to drip off. But since it's no longer being heated, it turns to ice. Over time, that ice can build up and even crawl under the shingles and lift them up. Then when it melts on a sunny day, it usually causes water damage inside your home.

If your roof has an ice dam problem, then you need to remove the snow before it can melt and ruin your roof, your ceiling and more. And, of course, you should insulate your roof or attic to fix the problem.

When in Doubt, Shovel

It may not be fun, but it's easier to shovel your roof when it doesn't need it than to rebuild your house after the roof collapses.

Thanks,

New Hampshire Construction

New Hampshire Homewners, Is Your Roof Trying to Tell You Something?

Next time you're outside, take a look at your roof. Is there snow on it? If you can see where the rafters are by the snow melt pattern, then your house has a heat-loss problem. Or if the snow cover has obvious bare spots, that's a sign of trouble, too.


There are three common roof snow melt patterns:

1. Bare spots. A bare spot in an otherwise snow-covered roof means that heat is leaking out in that location. That probably means you have a hole in your insulation, or that your insulation in that place is compromised in some way. You may even have a family of squirrels living in your attic.
2. Melting between the rafters. If you can see lines of snow over your rafters, then your roof is under-insulated. It's okay if the snow slides off the roof, blows off or melts off with the heat of the sun. But if the snow is disappearing between the rafters and not on top of them, it's not the sun that's melting it. You're paying to heat the sky.
3. Melting on top of the rafters. If you see snow everywhere except on your rafters, then you have a problem called thermal bridging. Thermal bridging occurs when heat conducts out through solid material. Your roof may have plenty of insulation between the rafters, but if the rafters themselves are conducting enough heat to melt snow, your insulation's not doing you a lot of good.

If your roof shows any of these signs of heat loss, it's probably past time to call your contractor. Most homeowners find that the cost of the work is more than made up for in energy savings.

Thanks,

New Hampshire Construction