Carports can be incredibly useful in the winter, helping to shield vehicles from the worst of the weather during this season. If your home features a carport, here are some of the things you should do to it in preparation for winter to ensure that it serves its purpose throughout these months.
Sprinkle some road grit on the paving directly beneath the carport
The first thing you should do is order some road grit, and then, when ice begins to form on the paving directly underneath the carport, you should sprinkle a liberal amount of the grit onto this surface. The reason for this is if the paving under the carport is topped with ice and is on a slight gradient, your parked car could end up sliding forward or backwards.
If the gradient is very gentle, your car might not travel very far but may end in a position where it is only partially covered by the carport's roof. If it snows after this happens, the exposed area of your car could get coated in a blanket of snow, that you would then have to shovel it off. By putting down grit, you can stop your parked car from sliding on the ice that forms on the paving and thus ensure that it does not get snowed under as a result.
Assess your carport's roof and repair whichever parts are damaged
Unless your carport is a brand-new addition to your home and is, therefore, in perfect condition, you should assess its roof and try to repair whichever parts of it are damaged. If, during the winter, it snows fairly often in the area where you're located, then you can expect a lot of snow to accumulate on your carport's roof. This should not cause problems, provided the roof's structural soundness has not already been compromised by its components being damaged. However, if the roof is in bad condition during the winter, its condition will likely worsen if heavy snow is left to sit on it for weeks on end (as a weak roof might not be able to cope with this extra weight).
In this situation, if you didn't want to emerge from the winter to find the roof sagging so severely that it had to be replaced, you would need to regularly scrape the snow off the roof to prevent it from worsening the condition of this already-damaged structure. This could be tiresome and exhausting. You can easily avoid this, however, by making sure that this part of the carport is in tip-top shape before winter and can, therefore, cope with being blanketed in snow for a few weeks at a time.
For more information on installing and taking care of your carport, contact a company like Allgal Garages.
