Has A Lightning Strike Damaged Your Roof?

Lightning is the abrupt discharge between storm clouds and the ground. If your St Augustine home is standing on a spot where the clouds and the earth have opposite charge, lightning can strike your house to find the shortest path through the structure of your home to the ground.

Since lightning passes through the most convenient path, it will follow through electrically conductive materials like wiring, water pipes, and metal gutters. A bolt doesn’t need conductive materials to reach the ground, however, and can travel through other structural components or jump from one conductive material to the other through the air.

As one of the top roofing companies in the area, we’ve seen many lightning strikes on all kinds of roof materials from clay to asphalt!

Roof Lightning Damage & What You Should Know

When lightning strikes your house, it can cause damage in several ways. A home’s electronics are often the first to be damaged by lightning, but in the case of more severe strikes, your roof can also sustain damage.

Roof damage can be the result of two lightning-related causes: heat and shock waves. When lightning strikes your roof and passes through your structure, the sheer heat can set your trusses, insulation materials, or attic walls on fire. A power surge can set off sparks inside your walls, which can cause materials to smolder or burn.

A lightning bolt can also trigger a shock wave that is strong enough to damage your chimney, roof shingles, and other roof components. Bricks that fall from your chimney, for example, can break your roofing materials or your gutters.

If a lightning strike damaged your roof in one of these ways, you have to take immediate steps to repair the damage. Failing to fix your roof at an early stage can result in water damage to your home as well as your personal belongings which may result in additional water damage restoration costs.

One of the problems is that property owners are not always aware of damage to their roofs. If you weren’t home when the lightning struck your home, or if the damage is out of sight, you may, at some point, realize that water is dripping through your ceiling or that your roof is starting to collapse.

You May Need Roof Repair From a Lightning Strike

If you suspect that your roof may have sustained damage because of lightning, you have to contact a professional roofer to conduct a thorough inspection of your roof and to recommend a suitable solution. Elite Remodeling Services provide the best roof repair in St Augustine, FL!

Don’t climb on the roof to conduct an inspection yourself, as the structural integrity of the roof may be compromised and you may fall.

As a rule, try to have your roof inspected for damage at least once a year. Additionally, invest in metal roof lightning protection that consists of a roof lightning rod and a network of metal pipes that connects the rod to the ground. A roof lightning protection rod will avert lightning from passing through your home’s structure.

If you have to repair your roof, then contact Elite Remodeling Services for high-quality roof repair. We will come to your home and carry out a complete inspection to determine the damage and provide you with a practical solution that fits your budget.