How to Protect Your Home During Roof Repair or Replacement?
Learn how to protect your home during roof repair or replacement with these essential tips and strategies to ensure safety and minimize damage.
Just like every other home maintenance task, repairing a roof involves loads of dust and debris. Unexpected weather and loud scraping noises worsen the home environment while work is underway. Homeowners can avoid such inconvenience by taking essential measures to protect their homes and loved ones during this situation. In this article, we will discuss some important tips and tricks for safeguarding your home during the repair.
7 Tips to Protect Your Home During Roof Repair
Are you planning to get your emergency roof fixed or replaced? Get ready to bear with all the mess, or take a proactive approach to save your home's interior and exterior beforehand. These tips will help you through.
1. Cover your garden
Foot traffic and nails falling during roof renovations can trample your garden. However, you can save your lawn from a wayward roof tile by taking some protective measures.
● Look for the areas to be protected.
Before starting with the repair, take a walk around your garden to look for the elements that need to be protected during the repair.
● Move the moveables
Before the roofing contractors arrive, remove the items that are easy to move. Bring them inside or shift them to a safe place. Stuff like lawn furniture and trash bins can be easily moved to avoid any sort of damage.
● Trim the twigs blocking your roof.
Consider trimming the tree twigs and overgrown branches that tend to block the roof traffic. Prune the trees that are too close to your home.
● Trap your plants
While the renovation is underway, your roses and gardenia need to be shielded against debris showers. Use tarpaulin to cover the flower beds and small plants. You can support the sheet with planks.
2. Protect your Attic
Dust and wood splinters can find their way to your attic if you do not sit properly. Take a wise step to cover all your belongings and possessions using old sheets or drop clothes. Once the repairing process concludes, you can gather all the messy sheets and dispose of them. However, if you do not store large items in your attic, you can skip the protective coverings. In this case, get ready for debris build-up. A post-repair vacuuming can be quite helpful in cleaning up your attic. Following vacuuming, use a broom to get rid of residual dust.
3. Clean your Patio and Deck
Repairs and renovations make the items in your patio and deck vulnerable to damage. To shield your valuables, take preventive measures such as the following:
● Relocate: Move the valuable belongings present on your patio and deck to a safe place to protect them from potential damage.
● Cover the immovables: Use traps and plywood to cover the items that cannot be moved, such as grills, patio furniture, and plants.
● Ask your roofing contractor: Ask the roofing company to plan their work, keeping in view the safety of your prized possessions.
4. Remove your Vehicle
Streamline your roof repair process by moving out your vehicles from the garage and the driveway. Consider relocating your vehicle to the street or your neighbor’s garage to:
● Safeguard your vehicle from the mess generated during this process
● Provide enough space for the roofing experts to proceed with the work efficiently without any delays.
Envision this scenario: you could not relocate your vehicle on the day of repair due to some reason. Now, the renovation has started, and you need to move your car out. The entire process would have to be stopped, and everything would have to be removed from the driveway. To avoid this inconvenience and waste of time, we recommend you make sure to remove your car before getting started.
5. Shield your Home Interior
Imagine your favorite wall hanging, falling onto the ground, and breaking into pieces. Vibrations result from processes like hammering, nailing, and drilling during roof maintenance. These vibrations pass through your home walls and can cause the paintings or other decorative items hanging against the wall to fall. To protect your home interior:
● Remove the wall hangings:
Remove decorative items, valuable paintings, or any other items that are susceptible to falling off due to vibrations.
● Cover the decorative items in your home:
Use sheets to secure your furniture and decorative items like vases, mirrors, and candle stands.
● Set up a temporary storage space:
Consider designating a section in your home to store moveables. Arrange all decorative items and relocated furniture in this space in an organized manner.
6. Secure the HVAC system in your home.
Cover all the openings in your home that can harbor dust and debris. For instance, vents and openings in your HVAC system can catch airborne particles and then circulate them through your entire house. Follow these tips to protect the air ducts from the dirt and rubble generated during roof renovation.
● Use tape and plastic to shield all openings of your HVAC system. It will help prevent buildup inside the ducts.
● Turn off your HVAC system during the repair to keep it from circulating dirt particles through your home.
7. Protect the Roofing Crew:
Protecting your home is important, but you should also consider the roofing crew’s safety. Don’t turn your home renovation project into the “floor is lava” game for the workers. Set up routes, enabling them to move smoothly and work efficiently. Ask them to follow OSHA guidelines for protecting roofing workers to ensure their safety at the workplace.
Conclusion
Roof replacement or renovation can mess up your entire home. Taking effective preventive measures can help you protect your home’s interior and exterior and your valuable possessions. Additionally, talking to your roofing contractor can be of great help. Shelter the vulnerable parts of your home with waterproof sheets. Relocate your vehicle, movable furniture, decorative items, and precious belongings. Lastly, cover the vents in your home.