Trees Can Damage Your Home | Trees are needed in the environment to sustain oxygen, provide shade and add beauty to your home’s landscape. They provide water filtration and wind protection as well, but they also pose a threat to your home in several ways, and not just on your roof. Atrium Roofing, an expert in commercial and residential roofing, talks about the dangers trees can impose if proper precautions weren’t taken in this post.
Roofing Damage
If you have trees growing close to your home, their branches and leaves may fall off and end up on your roof and gutters. The leaves and broken branches can easily clog the gutters and cause ice dams. And even pooling water, which can eventually leak into your roof’s inner structure and compromise it. Older trees may also have bigger branches that fall off and damage your roof, especially if it’s weighed down by ice during winter.
Foundation Damage
As professionals in residential and commercial roofing, we’re also aware that your home’s foundations won’t be easily pierced by the roots of your trees, but they can still be damaged through its pre-existing cracks. If there happens to be a large root system that extends beneath your home, it can cause foundation damage and uplift. The roots can also leech water from the soil beneath those foundations, which can make the whole structure settle and sink unevenly.
Landscape Damage
Trees are a desirable feature in home landscaping, but their roots can take over areas intended for other plants and ruin elaborate plantings. As some types of trees age, their roots become visible through the surface of the soil, which also happens through wind and erosion. Trees that grow closely together can also be forced to compete for limited water and nutrients, which makes gardening limited in the spaces around and between them due to the intertwined roots growing just beneath the soil’s surface.
Plumbing Damage
Except for garden sheds and treehouses, most homes are designed to have some sort of drainage system that disposes of water and sewage. Tree roots are naturally attracted to such a system, especially in areas that see little annual rainfall. For instance, some types of trees such as willows, maples, and aspens, are particularly invasive. As their root systems can develop as far as they need to in search of water.
When it comes to professional metal roofing, you can count on Atrium Roofing. Contact us at (210) 806-7171 or through our online request form to get started today!