Generally these types of materials are far safer to walk on since you won t be risking damaging your roof in order to do so.
Is it harmful to walk on your roof.
There aren t all that many asphalt shingle roofs around the area.
Even a fall from a one story home could involve a 12 or 13 foot drop and a two story home can be as much as 25 feet.
First you should always be certain that a roof is structurally sound before trying to walk on it.
People ask all the time if it s safe for them to walk on their rv roof to do maintenance or otherwise and the truth is there is no clearcut answer.
Even if you don t cause any cracks the pressure and added weight you place on your roof could cause the underlayment and foundation wood to creak crack and develop weaknesses.
To illustrate the problem we took three pieces of asphalt shingle and plunged one into a cooler full of ice left one at roof temperature and put the third under a heat lamp.
However if you ve driven around the phoenix area and paid any attention to most of the roofs you ve probably noticed something.
There are several safety factors to keep in mind when it comes to attempting to walk on a shingle roof.
Aside from slipping on ice winter is not a bad time to walk on that roof but not the best time.
If you have a fiberglass roof you most likely can walk on it since fiberglass roofs are the strongest.
We will review the three roof types in the next section of the article do not walk on a wet roof no matter how much weight it can hold a wet roof is slippery and dangerous don t take a chance and walk on a badly damaged rv roof.
Roof is uncomfortable or feels unsafe or too fragile for any reason in the opinion of the inspector steep pitch roofs judgment of the inspector high roofs judgment of the inspector.
Next you should be wearing a pair of boots or sneakers that have good traction to reduce your chances of slipping or falling.
We do not walk directly on any asphalt shingle roof that has one or more of these hazards.
Even then with newer roof tiles you can still damage your roof shingles by walking on them.
Roofing materials can get very slippery and depending on the slope of the roof it can become a dangerous situation for someone who is unskilled in walking on these areas.
Walking on your roof is incredibly dangerous.
Roofers are trained to walk on sloped surfaces so contact a roofing professional first if you are planning on doing repairs to your roof.
Beyond the obvious problems of injury walking on a roof can also cause extensive damage to the roof and eventually the interior of the building.