Fall Roof Checklist: What to Check Before Iowa Winter Hits

Start With a Ground-Level Visual Inspection

You don't need to get on the roof to catch the first warning signs. Walk around your house and look up.

• Granule loss. Shingles shed their protective granules as they age, and it usually shows up as a color change that looks like it's "flowing" down the roof — especially in the valleys, where more water runs. If a section looks noticeably lighter or blotchy compared to the rest of the roof, that's aging shingle material with less protection left.
• Valleys. A valley is where two roof sections meet and funnel water down. It's also where snow tends to sit longest and pile up the deepest, so it takes more wear than the rest of the roof over time. Look closely at your valleys for discoloration, bare spots, or anything that looks different from the shingles around it.

Check Your Gutters and Downspouts

Gutters that are working fine in October can fail the first time they're loaded with ice.

• Look for gutters that are loose, disconnected from the fascia, or bowing under their own weight. Any of these problems get worse fast once the gutter is holding ice instead of just leaves.
• Check that your downspouts are firmly connected at the bottom and not wiggling loose. When snow and ice form inside a loose downspout, the added weight can cause it to buckle or fall off completely.

Inspect Flashing and Vent Boots

Flashing and vent boots are small parts doing a big job — sealing every place something interrupts your shingles, like chimneys, plumbing vents, and skylights.

• First, look for flashing or vent boots that are missing outright.
• Then look closer for tears, rips, or seals that have pulled away from the surface they're supposed to protect. These are common failure points, and a small tear here is exactly how water gets under your roof even when the shingles themselves still look fine.

Peek Into Your Attic

Grab a flashlight and take a look at your attic insulation.

• You want it flat and even. If you see "flow" in the insulation — heaves, spots where it's piled up, or bare patches where the batts have shifted or gone missing — that's usually a sign of unusual airflow moving through your attic that shouldn't be there.
• While you're up there, check for missing soffit pieces or holes in the roof sheathing. Air is getting in somewhere, and that same airflow problem is often what drives ice dam formation later in the winter.

Trim Back Trees and Clear Debris

• Obviously, get any large branches off your roof.
• Less obvious: trim back branches that hang low over the roofline, even if they aren't touching yet. Once they're loaded with ice and snow, they get heavy enough to scrape across your shingles — and that scraping is enough to dislodge granules or damage shingles outright over the course of a winter.

When to Call a Pro

If you're comfortable getting up on a ladder and taking a closer look yourself, go for it — that's the best way to catch a lot of this early. But safety comes first. If heights and ladders aren't your thing, give us a call and we'll come take a look for you, no cost or obligation.

← Back to the Blog