3 Things to Keep in Mind When Repairing Leaking Rain Gutters

Ignoring a leaky gutter can cause damage to your home’s exteriors. If you think you have this problem at home, take a read below to see what you can do to solve it.

Determine the cause of leaking
If rushing rainwater hits a blockage while running through gutters, it’s going to surge up and over that blockage, usually spilling over the sides of the gutter. Once the storm is over, grab your ladder and a pair of sturdy work gloves, and take a look inside the rain gutters. If they are full of sodden leaves and smelly muck, it’s likely that your problem isn’t so much a leaking gutter as a spillover. Using a small trowel, a gutter scoop, or your gloved hands, clear away as much debris as possible, dropping it into a bucket for disposal. Then use a power washer or the strongest blast from your garden hose to clear away any remaining grunge. Once gutters are clean, use your garden hose to fill them up with water, and watch for leaks. If water runs through to the downspout without a hitch, you’ve solved the problem. Source: BobVila

Seal the seams
Every connection on a metal gutter needs to be sealed: end caps, splices, drop outlets and miters. Buy a product that’s specifically formulated to seal gutter seams. Seam sealer can handle submersion for long periods of time. It’s also resistant to light, which it will get plenty of.

Most important, high-quality seam sealer is runny, so it can penetrate down into the seam for a durable, long-lasting connection. Most products refer to this property as “self-leveling.” And the runnier the better, so if you’re applying it on a cold day, keep the seam sealer somewhere warm so it stays fluid.

Try to remove as much of the old sealer as you can, and make sure the area you’re sealing is completely dry. Home centers usually stock seam sealer near the gutter parts. Source: FamilyHandyman

Replace large damaged areas
If you have a large area to patch that’s damaged or rusted, your best solution may be to cut that section of guttering away with a hacksaw. Then cut a new section slightly larger than the one you removed and adhere it two both sides of the old gutter using roofing cement to hold and seal it. Source: DoItYourself

Gutter problems often require you to go up a ladder with the right tools and expertise. Don’t compromise your safety. Call us, and we’ll take care of the job for you.

 

Contact:
Kerrisdale Roofing & Drains
8296 Ross St, Vancouver, BC V5X 4C6
(604) 360-2114

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3 Important Tips to Avoid Chimney Fire

With all the things that happened this year, it seems like time flew faster than ever. Before we know it, it’s already almost winter. And this means it’s time to start prepping for the cold weather. Take a close look at the following tips to have a safe and cozy way to warm up at home:

Let a certified professional conduct an annual inspection
A damaged chimney can spread fire to the surrounding areas in your home. A dirty chimney with a lot of creosote and soot buildup is dangerous because these materials burn at very high temperatures, spreading the fire. It is therefore important to have your chimney and fireplace checked annually. For best results, use the services of a certified chimney sweep. Annual cleaning of the chimney will ensure better passage for the smoke and exhaust gases, in addition to regular removal of dangerous creosote. Source: DoItYourself

Do a test run
Test out the function of your fireplace by lighting a few small pieces of seasoned wood, lit from the top down. If smoke doesn’t exit vertically from the fireplace into the chimney, but enters the room, immediately troubleshoot and correct any problems. These can include creosote/soot build-up, other debris in the chimney like bird or animal nests, a damper that is closed or partially closed, or wet wood that isn’t burning well. Source: DIYNetwork

Use the right burning techniques
Low-temperature, slow-burning fires, particularly those left to smolder overnight, produce more smoke and leave behind more unburned combustible material. When that hardens into creosote on the chimney walls, there’s an increased risk of chimney fires. Hot, fast-burning fires, on the other hand, leave far less smoke, vapor, and unburned wood behind, so little to no creosote forms.

The best way to burn a clean fire is to use the top-down burn method: Place the large logs vertically at the bottom of the fireplace or wood stove (with the bottoms of the logs facing you), add four to five horizontal layers of kindling, then top with tinder and light. Source: BobVila

Have a relaxing cup of coffee as we take care of any chimney problems for you. Call us today for a free estimate!

 

Contact:
Kerrisdale Roofing & Drains
8296 Ross St, Vancouver, BC V5X 4C6
(604) 360-2114

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Easy Halloween Decorations to Spook Your Guests

Stay true to your annual Halloween traditions even during this pandemic by celebrating safely at home with these easy DIY projects:

The sorceress’ downfall
The wicked witch may have fallen, but your porch will come alive with this easy-to-make decor.

1. Cut two pool noodles to leg size (about 30 inches tall).
2. To make knees, draw a 3-inch half-circle in middle of each leg and cut the shape out. Pull edges together and secure with duct tape.
3. Tape quilt batting around pool noodles, adding extra layers to hip and thigh areas and an almond shape where it bends to complete knee. Use more tape to smooth out form.
4. Pull tights over legs. Stuff witch boots with batting and secure to legs by tying laces tightly.
5. To make sign, hot-glue six paint stirrers together to form a jagged rectangle, then hot-glue another stirrer to the back as a signpost. Paint on a phrase like, “Poison Apples for Sale.” Source: WomansDay

Say your message with jack o’ lanterns
Spell out your greeting in mini pumpkins gathered on your porch.

Step 1: Pencil letters on hollowed pumpkins (carve out the opening from the bottom).
Step 2: Using a drill with a half-inch bit, bore holes to form each letter.
Step 3: Hang strings of Christmas-tree lights, gathered in small bunches, to illuminate each pumpkin (unscrew bulbs where the string descends to the next row). Source: CountryLiving

Let spirits roam around
Cheesecloth is a crucial material for any DIY Halloween toolkit. Its loose, gauzy weave is reminiscent of cobwebs and ancient, forgotten places. You can drape it anywhere — over a mantel, lampshades, a dresser, a chair, or a window — to give your home an instant haunted house feel. It’s also the ideal material for making ghost decorations. A few ideas for cheesecloth ghosts include:

– Floating Ghosts. To give it a freestanding ghostly shape, soak cheesecloth in liquid fabric starch and drape it over a form shaped to look like a ghost’s body. Let dry, remove the form, and you’ll have a ghost that “floats” on its own, as shown on Home Talk.
– Life-Size Halloween Ghost. Use a similar method to make a life-size levitating ghost for your outdoor decor. Make a larger frame, this time using wooden stakes and multiple Styrofoam balls. Then follow the same basic method as for the floating ghosts. Get the full instructions on HGTV.
– Ghostly Outdoor Draperies. Inexpensive cheesecloth makes the perfect budget material for ghostly draperies. Hang yards of cloth from lightweight poplar boards you can staple to your porch roof like they did on HGTV. Source: MoneyCrashers

Want to improve your home’s curb appeal so that it would look awesome even without fancy decoration? We’d love to help! Call us today to get a free estimate.

 

Contact:
Kerrisdale Roofing & Drains
8296 Ross St, Vancouver, BC V5X 4C6
(604) 360-2114

 

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Thinking About Installing Roll Roofing? Read This First!

Deciding on what type of roofing materials to use for your home can be quite daunting considering how many options are out there in the market. If you’re looking for something that’s more budget-friendly, then this is something you should see.

What is Roll Roofing?
Roll roofing is a composite sheet of roofing material manufactured into a roll so it can be laid on the roof in strips that overlap each other. The roofing material used to make the roll can vary depending on the type one desires for their roof. Common materials used to make roll roofing sheets are similar to what’s found in most traditional roofing shingles and can include:
– Asphalt
– Fiberglass
– Asphalt-saturated organic felt
– Asphalt-coated fiberglass Source: LoveToKnow

Advantages
There are a lot of advantages or pros to installing a roll roof. The biggest one is the cost advantage compared to a clay roof or traditional asphalt-shingle roof. The cost of the rolls is less than half of what is needed for a shingled roof. With this in mind, homeowners can see a true cost savings for their overall home-improvement budget.

Rolled roofing is very easy to install, and there is minimal expertise needed to finish the job. Heavy-duty saws or nail guns don’t need to be used, and without a slope, there isn’t a huge risk of falling as with a traditional roofing job.

Roll roofing offers a great deal of color options to match with existing home colors, which allows for a finished look that is professional and adds curb appeal. Source: Improvenet

Disadvantages
– Rolled roofing is less durable than shingles. One reason why shingles work so well: the network of multiple, loosely interlocking shingles expand and contract without stressing individual shingles. By contrast, rolled roofing is like having one big shingle. This shingle cannot respond to changes in the building structure without tearing.

– Rolled roofing has a short lifespan of between five and eight years. Compare this to a lifespan of about 20 years or even more for composite shingles. Rolled roofing tends to lose its grains and develop bald spots after only a few years of use. Also, one of the benefits of roofing with many hundreds of small units (shingles) is that they can move and shift as the house moves and shifts. Rolled roof’s larger sections do not move as readily as the home expands and contracts.

– You can expect extremely poor resale value on residences that use this type of material. Few home buyers would consider rolled roofing to be anything more than a temporary, stop-gap roofing solution. Source: TheSpruce

 

Contact:
Kerrisdale Roofing & Drains
8296 Ross St, Vancouver, BC V5X 4C6
(604) 360-2114

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Improving painting skills – training never stops

We believe you never stop learning, which means our training never stops.

Recently our Growth & Training manager, Nestor, put 2 skilled foremen, 8 employees, and one older house together to give valuable training. We specialize in managed properties, so work on this single family home was an exception for training purposes. Nestor S and Jordan provided key skills training for proper surface preparation, priming, and painting. The challenges of COVID-19 and work scheduling delayed this training opportunity until fall.

Jordan brought his focus on details to the training, showing how small improvements like properly holding a brush helps create a clean line between soffits and siding, what’s known as ‘cutting in’. Painting paneled entry doors is a unique skill that takes patience and learning the right order to paint each component.

Using our know-show-do training method each employee had a chance to hear how to use a sprayer safely, see Nestor S spray a section, and then try their hand at spraying the siding of the house. With Nestor’s feedback, each one gained confidence and the first level of competence.

As an added bonus, we were able to provide the work at no charge, with valuable donations from Cloverdale Paint and Dulux Paints. And a shout out to Tony Orantes for many hours of hard work to help make this happen.

A big thanks to all of those involved for giving their time and effort. One small way we can give back to the communities in which we work, serving others and bringing beauty and renewal.

 

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3 Useful Tips to Prepare You for Replacing Roof Shingles

Do you feel like it’s already past time to replace the shingles on your home’s roof? Here are some necessary precautions and tips to consider before you go up there:

Assess the damage
Unless you’re seeing water damage inside your house, it can be tough to tell when you need to replace your roof’s shingles. There are, however, a few tell-tale signs to look out for.

Signs It’s Time to Replace Your Roof Shingles:
– The edges of shingles are starting to curl up.
– Moss or algae are building up on the roof’s surface.
– Asphalt granules from shingles are in your gutters.
– Your roof is more than 20 years old. Source: BudgetDumpster

Bring the right equipment
Before you set the day to remove the shingles from your roof, contact a local equipment rental company for a large dumpster for the shingles. A square-edged spade or roofing shovel are ideal tools for getting underneath the shingles and loosening the roofing nails from the wood. Purchase sheets of plywood to place over the windows below your roof to prevent any debris from shattering them. Two or more bar magnets will be needed so that you can easily gather the nails that will fall to the ground. It will be difficult to see the nails in the grass that surrounds your home. Source: DoItYourself

Wait for cool weather
Asphalt and asphalt sealant will heat up in hot weather, making it moldable and much more difficult to remove. It’s a lot easier to remove shingles that are cooled down and slightly more brittle than the moldable, so do the work of removing them first thing in the morning, before the sun has beaten down upon them considerably.

– Wet shingles to cool them down before removal, if you must work in the heat. Wetting them down with a small amount of water will help them to tighten and firm up, making them much easier to remove, if necessary. Source: WikiHow

Before taking on a roofing project, make sure you’re 100% safe by having the right experience and tools. Or if you want, you can just leave the task to us so you can sit back and relax as we fix any roofing problems for you. Call us today!

 

Contact:
Kerrisdale Roofing & Drains
8296 Ross St, Vancouver, BC V5X 4C6
(604) 360-2114

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What You Need to Know about Foam Roofing

Have you heard about foam roofing and its outstanding insulation properties before? If you haven’t yet, this is the perfect time to do so as it might be exactly what you need to add more barrier between you and extreme temperatures.

What is it?
Polyurethane foam is a liquid that is applied over existing roofs to create and expand into a foam layer. It is incredibly helpful for asphalt roofing shingles or metal panel roofs to create a layer of insulation and make your home more energy efficient. There are quite a few roof shingle types that can be installed with foam roofing. Source: Modernize

Different types
Cool roof coatings fall under the class of elastomeric coatings. These coatings protect the foam underneath and provide a painting surface. This creates an additional waterproof membrane that reduces heat infiltration on the roof. A cool roof coating may require several weeks of drying for additional layers of foam. The elastomeric coating also reduces the UV radiation from the sun that can cause foam to oxidize over time. All of these coatings can be applied at the same time as well.

Installation of a foam roof will require substrate preparation, coating and sealing. A foam roof cannot be applied directly without conditioning the substrate below. A clean, dry surface is prepared for contact, a process that includes the removal of any existing roofing material. The entire surface is primed with an adherence polymer to increase the adhesion of the foam product to the roof deck. This priming also prevents overspray from foam during the curing phase. Source: Improvenet

Advantages and disadvantages
Spray foam roofing systems have many advantages, such as being more energy-efficient than conventional asphalt or metal panel roofs and creating less of a carbon footprint. However, we should also take into account some drawbacks when installing a spray foam roof on your home or property.

Pros	Cons
Can be used in any climate Lasts over 50 years Eco-friendly Lightweight Seamless Thermal insulation Waterproof Easy to install and maintain Causes minimal disruption for homeowner	Requires professional installation Precision is imperative during installation Fumes may be toxic More expensive than other roofing options Must be installed in dry, warm weather Contact with foam could cause sensitivity or allergy

Source: Fixr

Do you want to have foam roofing installed at home? We’ll be more than happy to assist you in making your place cozier. Call us today to get a free estimate!

 

Contact:
Kerrisdale Roofing & Drains
8296 Ross St, Vancouver, BC V5X 4C6
(604) 360-2114

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