Your city code decides safe and standard practices when building a home. If you hire someone to build your roof or HVAC system, they need to follow these codes when installing. Or if your home gets damaged and needs repairs, the new repair must be up to code. These code upgrades are for your benefit as they keep your home safer and ensure that the work holds up longer, but doing a job right sometimes means incurring extra costs.
Homeowners insurance is important to keep the costs of your home covered in case of an unexpected event or accident. If you aren’t aware of all that your insurance can cover, reach out to your provider. Ask about Building Code Upgrade Coverage for your home. This can ensure that if you have to rebuild your home or need a replacement for something, the cost of bringing it up to code doesn’t fall on you. This type of coverage is often overlooked, so we wanted to give you a scope of the common code upgrades typically available for your home:
1. Metal Drip Edge Roof
When you build a home or get a full roof replacement, a metal drip edge roof is often required as part of these code upgrades. A drip edge on your roof ensures that when water or ice runs down your roof, it drains the water away from the siding underneath your roof edge, which is called fascia. This prevents rot and erosion to your roof shingles, decking, and home. When not installed properly, water, ice, and even insects and pests can get between this edge and into your home.
2. Roof Decking
Decking is the foundation of your roof. If it is not up to code it could mean problems arising later on. If your decking is 3/8in thickness, it is actually too thin. We recommend a ½ plywood layover when doing a new roof installation. Older homes can also have decking that has too much space between each board. Both of these issues are not only improper roofing according to current codes, but they can also cause roof vulnerability. Your roof can be prone to more leaks and staining when the decking isn’t done properly. When doing a full roof replacement, decking is covered by Building Code Upgrade Coverage.
3 Ice & Water Shield
The valleys of your roof are vital in draining ice, snow, and water away from your home. Snow and ice also have a chance of gathering in the valleys of your roof. Water and ice shield is a material that layers underneath your shingles to provide added protection to your roof. It prevents water from leaking into your foundation from ice damming or heavy rains.
If you’re worried about adding another cost to your insurance plan, Building Code Upgrade Coverage won’t break the bank. In many cases, it only costs $50-$75 a year—a small percentage of your total coverage cost— and the price of adding this to your plan is outstandingly effective in covering many necessary future upgrades.
If you want to know how this coverage can affect you in detail or if you want to ask about getting the upgrades mentioned above, contact us below or call (918) 994-2874.
Ready to get started?
