Temperature changes can 'rock your house’ too!

Can expanding and contracting temperatures affect a roof and other structural parts of your home?

I have been asked this question many times by concerned homeowners, and the answer is “Yes”.

Most homeowners know that when the weather becomes cold and the water around the house freezes, the ground expands. Then a warm-up occurs and the ground contracts.

This happens on and off in the winter and this constant fluctuation builds pressure on basement walls, leading to bowing and eventually cracking, and in severe cases the basement wall may even buckle.

Although this freezing-thawing process may not affect the rest of your home that much, cyclical weather conditions changing from warm to cold and incessantly repeating this process throughout the winter affects the shingles on the roof, your windows, door frames, walls and all other exterior structures of your home.

This has been a fairly typical Western New York winter with quite a bit of snow, as well as the weather changing in cycles from cold to warm repeatedly. As a result, all the outside structures of your home have been experiencing abnormal movement.

In addition, your home has been affected by water freezing and melting between your shingles, within your doorframes and window frames.

The most noticeable and often the most immediate effects are seen with leaking roofs and exterior doors and window sticking or developing opening cracks that let the cold air and moisture in. How does this process evolve?

It develops initially through tiny minute cracks that let a small amount of moisture through these tiny crevices. Each time we have these openings expand and contract, the size of the openings become greater, concrete walls move, doorways and windows become non-aligned, and roof shingles curl up or blow off the roof.

While damage may or may not be visible, the solution to the problem is early, careful home inspection which has to begin with the homeowner.

Each spring when the cold weather is over, you should inspect the exterior of the home to see what damage the winter has caused. An early inspection and preventative maintenance before the damage becomes too severe will certainly save money in the long run.

If there appears to be weather-related damage, or even if you cannot visibly see this, call in a professional home improvement contractor who will analyze the severity of the damage.

A good way to begin this is to call a home improvement contractor who has reputably been in business for many years, under the same name. Remember to insist on documented proof that the workmen are fully covered under Workmen's Compensation Insurance, not just public liability insurance.

As a rule, early inspections on a timely basis will require a minimum of caulking, sealing and tarring, which at an early stage will prevent a small problem from becoming a major problem. And your mind can rest easily this summer.