ICE DAM..Causes..Repair..Prevention..Solutions

12/30/2015 (Permalink)

How and Ice Dam forms and the ways it can damage your home

With Colder weather approaching Ice dams are a common problem … Have you had ice dams in the past?

1. How does an Ice dam form: Heat Loss from sides or roof of your home.

2. How can it damage my home?   When you get an ice dam it can damage your home if it gets big enough…The ice that is closest to the house will start to melt and follows the path of least resistance. Many times that is under your shingles. It will continue to follow that path which can be into your insulation, down onto a ceiling or exterior walls.  As it moves through maybe behind an eave it can damage the wall and the paint. The Ice Dam can break free from your home it can pull on parts of the roof, shingles or gutters.  As it falls many things could be in the way. Kids playing outside, cars, shrubs, other parts of the house.  If the area remains wet and not fully dry mold and rot can start to take hold.

3. What steps can I do stop an ice dam? There are steps that you can do to prevent an Ice dam from forming. A roof rake is a good tool for this. ( We recommend hiring a professional who uses a safety line) You have to be careful as there are really only 2 ways to use it. The first is from the roof itself pushing the snow off onto the ground. This means you have to be on a roof that has ice and snow on it. DANGEROUS>>>> The other is to keep your feet planted on the ground and pull what you can reach off of the roof. Which means you are in the path of falling snow and ice again DANGEROUS>> which again is why we recommend a professional.  Replacing your roof with metal or standing seam is one way to get snow not to stick to it. While that may be expensive you could replace a smaller portion of your roof that is close to the gutters Approx. 3 ft with a drip edge. Keep in mind the incline on your roof will determine how effective or ineffective these options will be.

While all the above information will help you understand ice dams and how to work on preventing them, none of actually solve the problem of the heat loss. You have to deal with the ice dam once you have one. Let us tackle how to find out why they form to begin with and how to solve that problem.

Heat loss is how they form.. A warm roof or warmth seeping out from an unsealed edge of your home means snow has a chance to melt it will drip down to a point where it reaches the outside temperatures again and freezes again as Ice.  Water follows the path of least resistance if that is down to the gutter or down into your home that escaping warmth will melt the snow and water will go to work.  Should it drip down your roof it will eventually reach the colder outside air temperature. This build up over a period of time forms the ice dam. Heat loss is a very expensive problem that many do not notice until it is too late. There are many reasons for hear loss. The majority of the time it is through poor insulations or venting directly under the roof. The best solution is to work on insulation and preventing any convection through ceilings. Properly venting the space where the insulation and roof sheathing meet ensures that heat that seeps through is distributed away from the roof.  Make sure you seal all living areas. A great resource is to have an energy audit with Thermograpic inspection so that you can see where the problems lie and properly seal insulate and vent in the right areas.  

Obviously solving the problem is the best way to just not get an ice dam.

They do happen and when they do you have to deal with the problem.  Our team at SERVPRO of East Boston Chelsea Charlestown is highly trained on dealing with the damage that an Ice dam can cause and are here for  you 24/7. We will be here for you getting back to normal. Like it never even happened.