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Chimney liners are a very important component of the chimney, but the fact is most home and property owners either continue to overlook them or aren’t even aware of their existence. This is, however, quite understandable given the fact that they usually last a long period of time – more than 50 years. To ensure that they last that long, the question that arises is, do chimney liners need to be swept and cleaned? The short and simple answer to this question is yes, chimney liners definitely needs to be cleaned on a frequent basis. A chimney liner happens to be an essential part of your chimney. When it’s not cleaned, it tends to accumulate dust, soot and dirt which can give rise to a number of problems you’d rather want to avoid. Chimney liner are able to provide adequate protection to your flue but even at that the water, creosote and other contaminant build up can make the liner to deteriorate, and making it unsafe for usage. In other words, contrary to several belief, chimney liners do need the same amount of cleaning as chimneys without liners. Failure to sweep your chimney liners can give rise to the following problems:

• Creosote buildup. If your main source of fire is wood, then you’ll definitely have creosote present in your chimney. This is highly combustible and its buildup may lead to fire outbreak.
• Carbon monoxide poisoning. Carbon monoxide is said to be on the rise by NCBI and its primarily generated from heating systems which are terribly ventilated as a result of uncleaned or dirty chimneys.

Competent Roofer is a scheme that allows professionals to self-certify that their work is in line with Building Regulations. If you don’t use a registered Competent Roofer, you’ll have to pay your local authority to certify the work, so we recommend you use a Competent Roofer to save yourself extra outlay at the end.

Will My Roof Leak With Missing Ridge Tiles?

Your roof is the first line of defence against the elements. Therefore, if you want your home protected at all times, there’s a need to ensure a professional inspection of your home at least once a year. However, there are certain issues that you do not have to wait for a professional to be able to spot by yourself. And an example of this includes a missing ridge tile. This issue is noticeable from the ground level while some tiles may even fall off and notifying you in the process. If you’re currently facing this kind of challenge, you’d probably want to know if the missing ridge tiles can cause your roof to leak. In this article, we aim to answer this question and more. Let’s take a look!

Firstly, there are a number of causes of missing tiles or slates and the most obvious is the weather. When the wind or rain gets very high, it can pull your tiles out of place and even more more, if they weren’t properly installed in the first place. Secondly, there’s also a chance that the nails may wear away. These are the nails that holds your ridge tiles in place, they can rust and wear away, hence leading to missing ridge tiles.

Therefore, the short answer to the question is yes, missing ridge tiles can cause your roof to leak. Even if it doesn’t leave a visible gap in your roof’s covering, it’ll create a break in the roof which weather can easily penetrate. And allowing this to happen makes the other tiles more susceptible to damage which won’t be good for the entire house as well as your pocket. Hence, once you notice a missing ridge tile ensure to have it replaced as soon as possible.

How To Clean Moss Off Roof?

Although moss attack on your roof is a less common occurrence, but when they occur they can be very harmful to your asphalt shingles if not attended to. Generally, moss are commonly found in damp environments such as the North slopes, overhanging treses or overhanging regions of the roof which causes shade which enables moisture to be stagnant and moss to develop. If you observe a green fuzzy stuff appearing on your roof, that’s likely to be moss.

The same way algae navigated its way to your roof as they can be airborne and travel via wind, squirrels, birds or other little flying or climbing animals, moss also gets carried similarly. One moss finds its way up your roof, they’ll find spaces between the shingles where they’ll form thick spongy moss which can be difficult to clean off if you don’t know the best way to go about it.

If you’re not a competent DIYer or confident enough to carry out this task, we’d strongly recommend you hire the services of a professional who can guarantee the best results effortlessly.

The best way to go about the cleaning task for both your roof and environment is to incorporate a product called Spray and Forget or Wet and Forget. You can get these at most local hardware stores. Simply put the product into a hose end sprayer and can be applied from the ladder at the edge of the gutter or even from the ground. This method may take a up to 6 months before you’ll start seeing the results but it happens to be the safest. Another method that can be used is bleach and water which is very aggressive but provides a quicker result. However, this is best done by a professional to avoid seriously damaging your roof.

You should inspect your roof at least once a year, to check there are no leaks or infestations. It’s best to do this just after it has rained, so leaks are as obvious as possible. You may find over a period of time there is a build up of moss on the roof, this should be cleaned so rain water has a clear path to the guttering.

Leaves, twigs and moss all have one thing in common which often annoys home and property owners - they are the three main materials that negatively impacts the proper functioning of a roof guttering system. The major cause of water drainage problems for most homes and buildings are these organic materials. Wondering how some leaves and few twigs can cause such a big problem? Over time there’ll be a gradual build up of the natural debris in your gutter system which starts to rot and turn  to a thick and muddy goo which obstructs the flow of water in your drainage. As a result, there’s the need to make sure that your gutters are thoroughly cleaned at least twice annually in order to prevent bigger issues that can be caused by the blockage of a drainage system.

So if you’re considering getting your gutters cleaned by a professional, you’d probably be interested in know just how it’s going to cost. Well, there’s not straightforward and simple answer to this question as there are a number of factors that contributes to the final cleaning cost of your gutters.

In general, in the UK, the average cost for cleaning of gutter is usually around £18 to about £25 per hour. However, you can also be quoted a day rate which is usually ranging between £150 to £200 per day.

The factors that can affect gutter cleaning price includes the type of your property (such as a terraced, end of terraced, detached and semi detached homes) which possesses a varying gutter cleaning price largely due to their size differences, the height of the building ( if you require the service for a property located on the second floor of a building, this would be a bit higher than if it were to be on the ground floor) as well as additional requests.

How To Repair Roof Leak

Asphalt shingles are the most popular roofing material options for most UK homes in recent times. Thanks to them, roof repair is now all about identifying the leak and sealing it the right way. If you’re a competent DIYer and confident enough to pull this off, then this should be done within a short period of time and saving you money as well. However, if you don’t have the confidence to pull this off, then calling on a professional roofer who can guarantee the best results will be your best bet. In this article, we’ll consider four simple steps you can take to repair an asphalt shingles roof.

✓ Locate the spot of the roof leak. Roof leaks are mostly made evident by water stains on the ceiling. Simply note the spot of this water stain, grab a good pair of binoculars, then go outside to identify the location of the roof leak. Search the area for any curls, cracks, missing shingles or anything that looks odd. Leaks can also occur at any spot where caulking and flashing have been affected or compromised.

✓ Secure curled shingles. To do this, simply brush on a generous amount of asphalt roofing cement to the underside of the shingle and press firmly to set.

✓ Replace damaged or missing shingles. In the event whereby the shingles are cracked, rotten or missing, your best bet would be to have them replaced. Simply remove the damaged shingle then slide in the new one under the one above and align it with those on either side. Once done, you can then secure it with 6d galvanized roofing nails at each corner. After completion, make sure you cover the nail heads with roof cements.

✓ Fix flashing. To do this, simply reseal joints with the help of a caulk gun loaded with roofing cement.

Chimneys are certainly on top of the commonly overlooked features when it comes to cleaning a house. This is quite understandable given the fact that they’re not readily accessible and not in plain sight, hence, home and property owners tend to overlook the relevance of any chimney cleaning effort. But this can be a grave mistake! The importance of having your chimney swept on a regular basis cannot be over emphasized and even more so if it happens to be on a wood burner. Not only can a dirty chimney constitute fire hazard, but when left uncleaned it can also give rise to blockages which can lead to carbon monoxide poisoning. In fact, from 2014 to 2018, one of the top factors contributing to about 25% of home heating fires is due to lack of cleaning, mainly from solid-fueled heating equipment, mostly chimneys. Therefore, sweeping your chimney regularly is a safety precaution and when they happen to be on a wood burner, this exercise becomes a lot more important. With that in mind, the question that arises is just how often is sweeping of a chimney on a would burner needed?

Well, it’s strongly advisable to sweep chimney on a wood burner at least twice a year by a qualified professional depending on the usage. If you happen to own an oil burning fireplace, the same also applies. In other words, this means that regardless of the type of chimney you possess, the cleaning must be done regularly. However, most chimney would only need to be swept once in a year by a qualified professional.