When deciding to keep, cut down, or plant trees around your home or office building, consider practical, financial, and safety matters. There are many benefits of having trees nearby, but they also have a few hazards to be wary of. Think about the following for your building.
Pros:
- Trees provide natural shade, thus keeping your building from heating up as much. This saves energy costs like air conditioning use.
- They naturally improve air quality and reduce pollution, especially if they produce vegetation.
- They also improve stormwater management, in turn improving water quality.
- Vegetation absorbs noise pollution, such as nearby traffic, which can be helpful in urban environments with lots of natural city sounds.
- Trees are aesthetically pleasing and add value to the property.
- To top it all off, trees reduce the need for pavement maintenance.
Cons:
- Trees require extra cleaning, especially during fall when they lose their leaves. Even evergreen trees create debris like needles and twigs. Also, since trees can house birds, they can make nests and cause other disturbances.
- There is a potential risk of damage, both from storms and from limbs breaking off and falling on your building. Other great damages include large trees becoming uprooted and collapsing on a building. Even smaller trees could damage the roof through incremental scrapes and general wear-down. Additionally, debris can collect in and clog gutters.
- In the long term, the roots of a tree can expand and disrupt building systems.
Fortunately, there are ways to curb many of these drawbacks. Regularly trimming tree branches reduces the risk of breakage, regularly clearing gutters prevents clogs, choosing the most appropriate trees for your building space allows good growth, and giving them enough room to grow all will help reduce any issues.
At Midwest Roofing, we have the experience to help you with any of your roof-related tasks. For assistance or even for more information about how your roof can be affected by different aspects of nature, feel free to contact us anytime.