With severe weather becoming more common, you might be looking for ways to prevent damage to your home, especially your roof. Hurricane-force winds, rain, snow, and ice can all wreak havoc on roofing systems.
While high-quality shingles can protect your home, installing a leak barrier below the shingles can keep water from seeping in through vulnerable areas like valleys, flashing, eaves, and chimneys. This underlayment can help you avoid leaks and other problems related to water intrusion.
Here's why you may want to install ice and water shields on your roof.
What Does an Ice and Water Barrier Do?
Leak barriers help prevent water from working its way under your shingles, thus helping to prevent ice dams, which can form when snow melts on the roof and then refreezes, trapping water along the edge. This buildup can eventually seep into your roof decking.
Leak barriers can also help you avoid related water intrusion issues like roof system deterioration, mold growth, moisture stains, and interior damage. They can even help you avoid irregularly high utility bills—as water intrusion can lead to wet attic insulation, reducing its insulating value, and lessening your roof system's ability to resist heat flow.
Peel-and-stick leak barriers ward off potential damage from wind-driven rain and ice. These self-sealing, fiberglass-reinforced membranes are the last line of defense in your roofing system, reducing the possibility of water damage and wood rot. The underlayment bonds to your roof deck with a watertight layer that seals around roofing nails and fasteners used to install shingles.
Does Every Roof Need Ice and Water Shields?
Any roof, whether made with asphalt, slate, tile, or metal, can benefit from ice and water shields. Water can collect in low-slope roof areas, valleys, and overhangs, making these areas high risk during severe weather.
If you live in a northern climate, having added protection against ice and water damage is especially important. Homes with northern exposures or in shaded areas also tend to get more ice dams. If you live in an area with a severe risk of wind-driven rain or hurricanes, leak barriers are recommended for the whole roof, no matter the pitch. Some local building codes mandate the use of leak barriers, so check with your local authorities.
Where and How Are Ice and Water Shields Installed?
GAF offers high-quality, durable peel-and-stick leak barriers, including StormGuard® Film-Surfaced Leak Barrier and WeatherWatch® Ice & Water Leak Barrier. They roll directly onto your roof deck and should be applied by certified professionals in cool, clear weather.
For best results in protecting vulnerable parts of your roof—such as eaves and rake edges, joints at valleys, overhangs, and around skylights and dormers—a roofing contractor should install these self-adhering watertight membranes before installing flashing. The barrier should also be applied beneath the flashing around vent stacks and chimneys, where shingles or flashing don't always overlap completely.
These membranes also form a tight seal around roofing nail penetrations. So even if shingles become damaged or blow off during a storm, your roof still has a layer of waterproofing.
Investing in Peace of Mind
Having added protection for your biggest investment—your home—can keep it safe no matter what the weather brings. Ice and water shields can stand between your house and nature's harshest weather, so investing in water and ice protection systems is money well spent.
If you choose to purchase a full roofing system, you might also be eligible for premium warranty coverage. For instance, if you install GAF Lifetime shingles plus a minimum of three qualifying accessory products (such as a leak barrier), you can get the GAF Lifetime Roofing System Limited Warranty.** This includes warranty coverage on all your qualifying accessory products.
Want to install water and ice shields on your roof? Contact a local GAF-Certified* roofing contractor to get started.
* Contractors enrolled in GAF certification programs are not employees or agents of GAF, and GAF does not control or otherwise supervise these independent businesses. Contractors may receive benefits, such as loyalty rewards points and discounts on marketing tools from GAF for participating in the program and offering GAF enhanced warranties, which require the use of a minimum amount of GAF products. Your dealings with a Contractor, and any services they provide to you, are subject to the GAF Contractor Terms of Use.
** Definition of Lifetime: The word "Lifetime" means as long as you, the original owner(s) [or the second owner(s) if coverage was properly transferred during the Smart Choice Protection Period], own the property where the shingles and/or accessories are installed. The Lifetime warranty is applicable only to shingles and accessories installed on a single-family detached residence owned by individuals. For any other type of owner or building, such as a corporation, governmental entity, religious entity, condominium or homeowner association, school, apartment building, office building, or multi-use structure, the length of the warranty is 40 years. See the GAF Shingle & Accessory Limited Warranty, GAF Roofing System Limited Warranty and GAF Golden Pledge® Limited Warranty for complete coverage and restrictions.
