The roof is the advance
guard of the house. It engages the elements first and provides the most fundamental
protection from them. As such it is always a source of anxiety and concern. If it's
old, you wonder when you'll have to replace it. If it's new, you wonder when you'll have
to repair it.
Every roof needs adequate runoff. You can't just let the water that is ready to fall off
your roof go straight over the sides. First of all, the random dripping would keep you up
and drive you crazy. Then all the water would end up in your basement, or flooding the
area around your crawl space or foundation. To ensure proper runoff, all roofs must have
gutters that drain the water to leaders.
Check the southern exposure of the roof. This side gets the worst beating from the sun's
rays because of the rising and setting of the sun in the south. (Well, actually it rises
in the east and sets in the west, but you'd never know it to look at the southern exposure
of your roof.)
Trying to decide which way is south will probably keep you too preoccupied to ask what the
roof is made of and whether or not it keeps the weather out (should you buy, you'll find
out when it rains). The most common roofing materials are: Slate:Unbelievably expensive, breaks easily, requires
specially trained, dying breed of craftsfolk to repair or replace.
Asphalt Shingle: Smells funny when wet, cracks in cold, retains heat in
summer.
Wood:Leaks, smells, rots.
Metal: Bends, rusts, corrodes
If price is no object, you might consider a thatched
roof, certainly the cutest roof of all, especially if you don't mind living under a fire
hazard teeming with mice and spiders. From a distance, a house with a thatched roof looks
like Don King.
This Homebuyers Tip was excerpted from:
The House Trap, by Alfred Gingold, Workman Publishing, 1988.
ISBN#: 0894806157
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