Far too often, when it comes to a home, most people think about entry doors and exterior colors. The most commonly overlooked part of the home is its roof. Your roof not only protects you from the elements outdoors, but it protects all your household valuables from harm.

The Various Parts of Your Roof

To fully understand how imperative your roof is to the overall value of your home, it's a good idea to consider its various parts. Each component brings a necessary cog to the overall wheel, known as your roof.

Shingles

The most commonly understood part of the roof is its shingles. Typically made of asphalt, these three-tab shingles help cover the entire roof. They come in a number of different designs and styles with varying lifespans. The job of each shingle is to divert water down your roof and into your gutters. While shingles are the most prominent roofing material, there are others available. These include materials like metal, clay tiles, and even slate.

Flashing

Flashing is another essential component of any great roofing system. Typically constructed of a thin sheet of metal, this material is installed on various places throughout the roof where a vertical surface intersects with the roof's plane. One of the easiest ways to think about this is by looking at a chimney. When a chimney is being constructed, it pops straight up through the roof of your home and extends onward.

When you think about shingles being laid down around the chimney, they still don't protect the small space where the chimney comes out of your roof. This is where flashing comes into play. Some of the most common places that you'll see flashing installed are at the chimney, skylights, dormers, valleys, and plumbing vents. The single job of this flashing is to divert water away from the feature, in this case, the chimney, and move it to the shingles.

Drip Edge

Next up, we have the drip edge. This is installed at the end of each eave edge of the roof. It consists of a thin metal strip whose job is to simply direct water from the roof down into the gutters. Without a proper drip edge, water can simply flow down the surface of the exterior wall of your home and damage any exposed wooden decking. The drip edge will be installed before the shingles to ensure a waterproof application.

Gutters and Downspouts

Lastly, we have your gutters and your downspouts. Constructed of either vinyl or metal, these troughs help collect water that runs off the drip edge of your roof. It then diverts this water from the gutter, down through the downspout, and away from the foundation of your home. Without these elements, water could pool at your foundation and create major issues over time.

Adding an Addition to Your Home

As your family grows and your needs change, you may find that your house just isn't big enough to meet those needs. Unfortunately, instead of having to move, you can always add an addition to your house. Part of adding this edition is determining how to tie in the new roof to the existing roof. There are a few different ways that you can do this.

Shed Roof 

One of the simplest ways that you can attach the roof from your new addition to your existing home is via a shed roof. This involves a single slope roof that you tie into your house at your addition's highest point. While this tends to be the simplest and most inexpensive option of the bunch, it does tend to readily reveal that the addition was an add-on and not part of the original home.

Roof Extension

If you're lucky enough to be adding your roof onto the gable end of your home, then a roof extension can be the cheapest and easiest solution. The gable end is the side of the wall that goes up towards the roof's peak. In this case, your roofing professional can simply extend the existing roofline over your addition. Unfortunately, additions tend to be installed at the front or back of homes where there's more space. So, roof extensions aren't always an option.

Gable Roof 

Contrary to a shed roof, a gable roof is composed of two slopes that meet up at a peak that runs down the middle of the roof. When this exact setup is matched to the existing proportions and angle of your home's roof, it will look like it fits in perfectly. Plus, it will add some visual character and interest to the overall look of your home.

Written by Taylor McKnight, Author for Pierce Roofing LLC