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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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