Las Cruces, New Mexico (PressExposure) March 13, 2010 -- Many home and business owners neglect roof maintenance until a leak is encountered. Here in Las Cruces homes often find that a leak often represents widespread problems over the entire roof area. Knowing the anatomy of a leak helps home and business owners make the right decisions in addressing roofing issues.
To better understand the anatomy of leak, we must first describe the most common type of flat roof in the Southwest- the "built up asphalt roof". The built up asphalt roof is made up of 3-4 plies (or layers) of asphalt sheeting bonded together with hot mopped tar that ideally form a waterproof barrier. The cover sheet, or top roof layer, of most built-up asphalt roofs is covered with a fine mineral granule that is embedded into the asphalt during the manufacturing process. This colored mineral serves as a protective barrier between the cover sheet asphalt and sun.
The service life of a typical "built-up asphalt roof" is about 8 to 10 years. Within the service life, regular maintenance is required to re-seal rooftop penetrations such as skylights, vent pipes and roof vents. The typical annual maintenance for these areas involves the application of plasticized cold asphalt. The problem with these treatments, along with other petroleum based roofing products, is that they rapidly "out-gas" into the atmosphere over the course of a few years. What is left behind is brittle, non-flexible and most often permeable by moisture.
When this occurs the asphalt releases the protective mineral that shields the underlying asphalt. Once the asphalt is exposed, it is subject to deterioration from UV rays, weathering elements and rapid out-gassing. Weathering elements such as rain, hail, snow, dust and most commonly wind promote the breakdown of built-up asphalt roofs. Asphalt breaks down slowly in water; the more exposure the more rapid the degradation. When hail strikes an asphalt roof it cracks the brittle asphalt, rain and wind then wash the protective mineral from the strike zone leaving behind bare asphalt. Over time dust settles into the bare asphalt voids and accelerates the roof's breakdown resulting in additional cracking and water infiltration.
It is shortly after this point that home owners will begin to discover all is not well with their roof. Yet, understanding the anatomy of a leak is the first step in determining proper roofing solutions and maintenance. An annual inspection of the roof and coating, along with a cost effective maintenance treatment will prevent the need for any wide reaching and costly repairs suddenly arising for the unsuspecting homeowner.
When faced with costly roof repairs, it might be worthwhile for the homeowner to look at modern durable and energy saving solar reflective roof coating systems. For New Mexican, and of course Las Cruces roofs, these offer a cost effective solution for home and business owners and require much lower levels of ongoing maintenance.