7 Interior Signs That Your Roof Needs Repair

For most homeowners, spotting roof damage is difficult. In fact, roof damage often doesn’t reveal itself until the time is too late to prevent it from becoming a problem. A common issue is that you can’t always detect roof damage from outside your home. But while your roof might look okay from the outside, you won’t know for sure until you’ve checked for interior signs of roof damage.

If you suspect that your roof might have damage, check for the following seven interior signs of damage.

1. Light penetration into your roof space

Although this is an obvious sign of roof damage, you might not notice this unless you go up into your attic or roof space and turn off all the lights. If you see light passing through the roof, the underlay or the flashing is compromised. No matter how small a hole appears to be, that hole will still allow in a considerable amount of moisture on a rainy day.

2. Blistered or peeling paint

Once rainwater enters a property, it has to flow somewhere. Rainwater will flow down roof beams and into insulation, then onto ceilings and down into wall spaces. Over time, as the rainy days add up and begin to take their toll, the paint on your walls will begin to bubble and peel away. Conditions inside your wall space will become humid too, and this will further exacerbate the problem.

3. Mould and mildew

Inevitably, as conditions inside your home become favourable, mould and mildew can take root. Mildew is similar to mould—with one main difference. Unlike mould, which can penetrate whichever surface it inhabits, mildew usually remains as a flat, white to grey patch on a surface where moisture is present.

Mould is similar to mildew, but it is more harmful to your home in terms of the damage it can do to the structure. This is because mould can spread across and within a material such as wood or paper, breaking that material down as it spreads. If your roof leaks into a wall space, it could create the ideal conditions for mould to thrive.

4. Discoloured ceiling

Another obvious sign of a damaged roof is ceiling discolouration. Water leaks through a damaged roof and penetrates the insulation before leaking onto the ceiling. This then causes gradual discolouration to occur. If the ceiling of an upper room is discoloured, a hole in your roof could be to blame. That hole will begin to affect your insulation too.

5. Higher energy bills

In a properly insulated home, the energy bills will remain stable. But if your energy bills take a sudden leap, then your insulation could have failed. Sometimes, this is due to roof leaks. If a hole in your roof allows water to leak in during rainy days, it will damage your insulation material, which helps to keep your home cool. And cool air will escape your home through the roof.

As a result, your air conditioners will need to work harder to cool your home, thus leading to higher energy bills.

6. Electrical shorts

If your home has begun to experience unexplained electrical shorts, a roof leak could be to blame. When rainwater leaks through a roof, it usually heads downwards, and this route can take it past electrical wiring and into and around light fixtures and electrical equipment. This is dangerous to you and your household and requires urgent attention.

7. Rotting beams

Yet another risk to your health and an indication of a damaged roof is rotting beams in your roof space or attic. If one or more beams are rotting, this means that your roof probably suffered damage quite a while back. You need the help of a roofer to repair the damage and prevent your roof from collapsing in future.

Have you found one or more of the above signs within your home recently? Then you need a reliable and experienced roofer to carry out repairs. Call Homestyle Roof Painters today, and we’ll find and repair damaged areas of your roof quickly and efficiently.