Hanging Christmas Lights

Hanging Christmas lights this season? Here's a few helpful hints on how to hang lights and protect your shingles.

The best way to hang holiday lights is by stringing them through plastic clips attached to your shingles, gutters and eaves. Plastic clips designed for use with holiday lights are easy to install and remove, affordable and readily available at most home improvement or large retail stores.

Using plastic clips instead of traditional nails or staples will prevent you from puncturing your shingles or gutters; even the tiniest hole in a shingle can allow moisture to seep in and potentially damage the roof. Using nails or staples can also puncture the wires of your lights, or wear down their insulating coating, potentially causing electrical problems.

A good question to consider while implementing your holiday decoration plan is, “Would Clark Griswold do this?” Generally, if the answer is yes, do not proceed—especially when it comes to stapling lights to your roof.

Merry Christmas and stay safe!

Fall Gutter Care

Here are some helpful tips for cleaning out your gutters this fall:

1. Why Clean Gutters in the Fall?
Completing the task of clearing out your gutters is especially important now, in the fall, because free-flowing gutters help your roof move ice-melt away from the gables, where it might otherwise lead to ice dams. Ice dams often occur when trapped ice melts then rapidly freezes again, creeping up under shingles and into the sensitive underlayment materials below. Ice dams are infamous for causing considerable damage and debris in your gutters can exasperate the problem.

2. Don't Forget About the Downspouts!
Downspouts are just as important as the gutters themselves, as they’re designed to lead water away from both your home’s foundation as well as its more sensitive wooden elements. If a downspout becomes clogged with debris, it won’t be able to redirect water and snow-melt fast enough to keep it from leaking into your home. Check the area where a downspout exits from the bottom to the gutter for loose or missing rivets, replacing any problem areas with new rivets. Improperly attached downspouts can damage siding if they tear loose.

3. Re-secure Gutters and Downspouts:
Water and ice can be heavy, so make sure your gutters are securely attached through the fascia board to the rafter behind it using the appropriate hardware. Neglected gutters clogged with ice and rotting vegetation have been known to tear loose from their moorings, damaging houses and even injuring persons, pets, or property located below.

4. I Finished Cleaning My Gutters, Now What?
Once your gutter cleaning duties are finished, grab an umbrella and go outside on the next rainy day to check for overflows, blockages, or other problem areas. Hopefully, you won’t find any! For professional help with cleaning or repairing your gutters, contact the roofing experts at Slaughter Roofing and C&S Gutters here in Greeley.

Storm Chasers

Storm chasers are roofing contractors who follow in the wake of severe weather incidents with hopes of doing a lot of repair work — and usually very quickly.

• The contractor watches for severe weather to strike a region. “Severe weather” can mean anything from a hail storm to a tornado.

• Following the storm, the contractor rounds up a crew, travels to the affected area and begins to use aggressive tactics to drum up business that can range from annoying to shady to scary. The storm chaser offers to repair storm damage done to a homeowner’s roof at little or no cost to the homeowner.

• How is this possible? By encouraging homeowners to make use of their home insurance policies. Some storm chasers even offer to pay the homeowner’s deductible, or offer cash back!

• The storm chaser completes a rush job on the roof, and a few years later, it’s already beginning to fail; or, in some cases, storm chasers have been known to simply take the money and run.

Stay Local!

Remember: a local/reputable company won’t drop by to do work that you haven’t requested. You make the first step: you call the reputable company, and you schedule an appointment. The company representative will look professional and show identification. You’ll have a chance to discuss the details of the damage, replacement options and any out of pocket costs to you. 

A local/reputable company knows their product and local building codes. Their representatives will be able to explain the details of their labor and manufacturers’ warranty. They will give this information to you in writing.

A local/reputable company will be there to help you every step of the way during the process. Most importantly, the company will still be there if you need them tomorrow or years from now.

Consider Your Options.

Don’t underestimate the importance of quality labor and materials. If your “free roof” is installed improperly, it could fail. If your roof fails because of improper installation, your manufacturer’s warranty can be nullified.

If you can’t get a hold of your out-of-state or out-of-town contractor to uphold the labor end of the warranty, who is going to make the necessary repairs? You could wind up paying more in the long run for a cheap roof you chose in the short term.

Don’t Pay Anything Upfront

You’ve called your insurance company, done your homework and decided on a company you trust. Even then, quality contractors will not ask for any money down and have solid relationships with their local suppliers.