Roof Maintenance Checklist for Alberta Homes (Spring & Fall)

Do this once the snow is off the roof and the ground has dried, typically April or early May in Airdrie. The point of a spring roof inspection is to find what the freeze-thaw cycles, the ice dams and any winter wind did, and to get ahead of hail season.

From the ground, yourself:

• Walk the full perimeter with binoculars and look at every slope for missing, lifted, curled or cracked shingles
• Check the yard, deck and eavestroughs for shingle pieces, granules and nails that came off over winter
• Look at the roofline from across the street for any dip, sag or wave
• Inspect visible flashing at the chimney, walls and vents for rust, lifting or gaps
• Check the eavestroughs for sagging, separation at the seams and pulled fasteners from ice weight
• Confirm the downspouts discharge at least a metre or two from the foundation and the extensions are back in place
• Look for water stains, peeling paint or damp on exterior fascia and soffit, which point to ice-dam overflow
• Go into the attic on a dry day with a torch and check the deck for staining, daylight, mould or damp insulation
• Look inside at ceilings and the tops of exterior walls for new stains, especially under valleys and around chimneys

Leave to a roofer:

• Walking the roof to check sealant strips, nail pops and the condition of the ridge cap
• Resealing or replacing cracked plumbing vent boots and rusted box vents
• Repairing or replacing lifted or damaged flashing
• Replacing wind-damaged shingles and resealing lifted tabs
• Assessing any hail damage from late-season storms and documenting it for a claim
• Checking skylight seals and curb flashing up close

If the spring check turns up more than a couple of issues, our roof repair service in Airdrie can handle them in one visit. If it turns up a pattern across every slope, read our guide to the signs you need a new roof before you spend money on repairs. If what you find is an active drip, our guide on how to stop a roof leak covers the immediate steps.

Do this after the leaves are down and before the first lasting snow, usually late October to mid November. Fall roof maintenance is about drainage and ventilation, because those two things decide whether you get ice dams in January.

From the ground, yourself:

• Clean the eavestroughs and flush the downspouts, or book an eavestrough cleaning if the roof is high
• Check that downspout extensions are attached and directing water away from the foundation
• Trim back any tree branches within about two metres of the roof, so snow-laden limbs cannot scrape or fall on it
• Do another binocular walk-around for shingles damaged by summer hail or wind
• Look at the soffit vents to make sure they are not painted over, blocked by insulation or full of debris
• Check the attic insulation depth and look for gaps, compressed areas or bare spots near the eaves
• Confirm bathroom and kitchen exhaust fans vent outside, not into the attic, and that the flappers close
• Look for gaps around the chimney, plumbing stacks and attic hatch that let warm air up into the attic
• Make sure the attic hatch is weatherstripped and insulated on top

Leave to a roofer:

• Fixing any hail or wind damage found over summer, before snow gets into it
• Adding or clearing baffles at the eaves so intake air can reach the attic
• Assessing whether exhaust and intake venting are balanced for the attic size
• Repairing eavestrough slope and reattaching sections pulled loose over the year
• Installing or repairing heat cable in a known ice-dam trouble spot
• Sealing flashings and penetrations that will otherwise wick meltwater in during Chinooks

Ventilation deserves a special mention. A warm attic melts the underside of the snowpack, the meltwater runs to the cold eaves and freezes, and an ice dam builds. Our guides on how to prevent ice dams in Airdrie and attic ventilation requirements in Alberta explain how to break that cycle.

If you skip everything else, do not skip the eavestroughs. Eavestrough cleaning, or gutter cleaning as most search results call it, is cheap, quick and prevents a remarkable range of expensive problems.

A clogged eavestrough overflows at the front edge and behind, which soaks the fascia and the soffit, rots the rafter tails, and dumps water beside the foundation instead of a metre or two away. In winter it is worse: a trough full of wet leaves freezes solid, becomes the base of an ice dam, and the weight of that ice pulls the whole run off the fascia. We see this every spring in mature neighbourhoods like Big Springs, Summerhill and Woodside where the trees are large.

Do it twice a year, in spring after the seeds and blossom drop, and in fall after the leaves. If your roof is two storeys or steep, or you are not comfortable on a ladder, a professional eavestrough cleaning as of 2026 typically runs $150 to $400, and it comes with a look at the condition of the troughs. The same eavestrough cleaning in Calgary is priced the same way for homes on that side of the corridor. Our eavestrough service in Airdrie covers cleaning, repair and replacement; if the cleaning turns up sagging or split runs, our eavestrough cost guide explains what replacement runs per foot.

Airdrie's roof maintenance schedule has a third entry that does not sit on a calendar. Whenever hail or a serious windstorm comes through, do a walk-around within a few days. This is Hailstorm Alley, and the August 8, 2026 storm that ran down the Crossfield to Airdrie corridor with quarter-sized hail was a reminder that it does not wait for a convenient season.

• Look for dents and dimples in soft metals: eavestroughs, downspouts, vent hoods, flashings and the barbecue lid
• Check window screens, siding and painted surfaces for hail marks; if they are hit, the roof is hit
• Look for shingle pieces and heavy granule wash-out at the downspout outlets
• Look for tabs lifted or creased by wind, and for shingles in the yard
• Take dated photos of everything, including the hail on the ground if you can

Hail damage is often invisible from the ground, so if the soft metals are dented, book a free inspection promptly. Many insurers require hail claims within 12 months of the storm, and the evidence is clearest in the first few weeks. Our guide on how to tell if your roof has hail damage shows what to look for. Confirm your policy's claim window with your insurer or broker.

Almost everything on these checklists can be done from the ground, a stepladder or inside the attic. That is deliberate. Falls from roofs and ladders are a leading cause of serious home-maintenance injuries, and a steep or frosty Alberta roof is not the place to learn.

Reasonable for a homeowner:

• Binocular inspections from the ground and across the street
• Eavestrough cleaning on a bungalow from a properly footed ladder, with someone spotting
• Attic checks on a dry day with a torch, walking only on the joists
• Trimming reachable branches and clearing debris from the yard
• Checking and adjusting downspout extensions
• Photographing anything that looks wrong

Leave to a roofer:

• Anything that requires standing on the roof, particularly on two-storey homes, steep pitches, metal roofs, or in wind, frost or rain
• Flashing, vent and skylight repairs
• Shingle replacement and resealing
• Pressure washing, which strips granules and voids warranties; do not do it at all
• Moss treatment on the roof surface
• Any work near overhead power lines

A roof maintenance service in Airdrie that does the roof-level items once a year is inexpensive relative to what it prevents, and it means someone with experience has put eyes on every slope.

Here is the whole year on one table. Pin it somewhere you will see it.

Roofs that follow something like this schedule routinely reach the upper end of the lifespans in our guide to how long a roof lasts in Alberta. Roofs that do not tend to fail early at the eaves, the flashings or the valleys, which is where neglect shows first.

Maintenance only works if you act on what the checklist finds. These are the small jobs that turn into big ones if they wait a winter.

• A lifted shingle tab: reseal now, or wind gets under it and takes the course. Cost as of 2026: roughly $300 to $500.
• A cracked vent boot: the rubber splits with UV and lets water straight down the pipe into the wall. A quick swap, typically a few hundred dollars.
• Rusted or lifted flashing: the most common leak source we see, particularly around a chimney with no cricket to divert water; see our chimney cricket explained guide. A flashing repair generally runs $500 to $1,500 and lasts a decade or more.
• A sagging eavestrough section: rehang it before ice loads it. Much cheaper than replacing a torn-off run and the fascia behind it.
• Missing soffit vent screens: birds and wasps move into the attic. Cheap to fix in fall, unpleasant to fix in June.
• Bare or thin insulation near the eaves: top it up and add baffles before winter to cut ice dams.

These are rough market guides, not quotes; a free on-site visit gives you an exact figure. If you find several at once and the roof is past 18 or 20 years, it may be time to weigh repair against replacement instead; our roof repair versus replacement guide shows how to make that call.

The ground-level items in this roof maintenance checklist are yours, and they cost nothing but an hour twice a year. The roof-level items are ours. Apex Roofing Airdrie offers a free roof inspection that covers every slope, the flashings, the vents and the attic, and if we find something that needs fixing you get an itemised written quote before any work starts.

Our roof maintenance service handles the seasonal items in one visit, and our eavestrough service takes the ladder work off your hands. Do the spring and fall rounds consistently and your roof will very likely be one of the ones that reaches 25.