Video On How To Prevent Ice Dams
Watch the video by This Old House that explains how to prevent ice dams by insulating and ventilating your attic properly. The prevention of ice dams can often be rectified by looking over your attic carefully. Seal up any potential areas where you find drafts.
Make sure you additional insulation where necessary. If you take the proper steps, you can easily minimize your chances of ice dams forming.
Without a doubt having an ice dam is not a pleasant experience. All of the above tips will certainly minimize your chances of getting a problem you dont need!
Add Roof And Soffit Vents
Attic ventilation draws in cold outdoor air and flushes out warmer attic air, cooling the attic and the roof in the process. The minimum ventilation area should be about one sq. ft. of vent per 300 sq. ft. of ceiling area , when half the vent area is low on the roof and half is high.
Actually figuring all this out is a bit complex you have to examine your existing vents to find the area of each, which is stamped on them. As a rule of thumb, put an 8-in. x 16-in. vent in the underside of the overhang in every other rafter space . And install a continuous ridge vent along the peak.
If the ridge on your roof is much shorter than the roof edge on pyramid-shaped roofs, for example add the common square-shaped roof vents near the peak. Add enough so their ventilating area is about equal to the area of soffit vents. This might deliver a whole lot more ventilation than the minimum requirement, but dont worry. Youre unlikely to have too much ventilation.
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Should You Install Heat Cables To Prevent Ice Dams
Heating cables are a great solution to ice dam problems. They are inexpensive and easy to install as long as an external outlet is available nearby. The antifreeze cables melt the ducts, allowing water to drain from the ceiling and avoid creating dams. If you have difficult ice dams and other solutions are difficult to implement, feel free to use defrost lines.
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Know When To Call A Pro
Sometimes we get in over our heads.
Luckily, professionals like Rescue My Roof are here to help. When you are experiencing extreme ice dams, roofing professionals have a unique tool they can use.
A roofing contractor can use steamers to melt the ice off of your roof. Steamers are a valuable tool during the winter because they can get rid of the ice without chipping away with a hammer or mallet and potentially damaging the roof.
A steamer is the safest option to remove ice dams. Find a professional in your area that provides ice remediation service to help get the job done right.
Can You Remove Ice Dams From A Glass Roof
Yes: it is possible to remove ice dams from the canopy. It’s complicated and dangerous. This is another example of how ice dam removal is a skill. They were hesitant to make their first glass roof, but their client said they called all the other ice dam removal companies in sister cities.
Gutter coversHow much should you expect to pay for gutter covers? Gutter guards cost $ to $ per foot for the material alone. If you buy your own gutter covers, it will cost $ to $ per foot to hire a mechanic to install them. When you hire a full-service gutter protection company to install complex fences, you can factor in costs ranging from $ to $ per foot.Why should you consider gutter covers?Reâ¦
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Providing Solutions To Protect Your Roof From Ice Dams & Water Damage
One thing that homeowners dread during snowy weather is the formation of ice dams along the edge of the roof.
An ice dam earns its name by trapping pools of melted water behind the frozen dam created when melted snow re-freezes along the eaves, where the roof is coldest.
Water trapped behind an ice dam can flow under roof shingles and leak into the house, damaging walls, floors, and other materials.
Several conditions must exist for ice dam damage to occur. If all these conditions are present, its likely that some water will leak into your house.
Here at Stash Property Restoration, we offer solutions to repair damage to your roof caused by ice damming, as well as prevent ice dams from forming on your roof.
Ice dams can cause interior damage to ceilings, walls, and floors, but the right roofing services can eliminate this worry.
Should I Remove Snow From My Slide Before Retracting It
Depending on the nature and amount of snow, the slide should drop it like water. Knowing the cost of repairing the slide, I prefer to be safe and clear the snow before removing the slide. The sliding canopy folds over the top of the sled and often doesn’t retract properly until the heavy snow is gone.
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Ice Dams: What Are They How Do They Form And How To Get Rid Of Them
If there is one thing you must be prepared for when living in Midwest winters, keeping your home safe from the elements. The part of your home that takes the brunt of the force from winter storms and snow? Your roof. During the cold winter months, your roof can sustain all types of damage. Large amounts of snow can cause harm to the roof, as can blistering winter winds, especially when accompanied by hail and sleet.
However, today were going to talk about another roof issue caused by extreme winter weather:ice dams. Well discuss what they are, how you can get rid of them without damaging your home, and finally, how to keep them from forming in the first place.
Contact Our Roof Ice Melt Experts
At HotEdge, we understand how frustrating it can be to see that falling snow is causing a serious issue to the structural integrity of the roof of your home. Our ice melt system provides you peace of mind knowing that your roof is safe and will not be damaged by the snow or buildup of ice. You and your family can enjoy the winter wonderland without worrying what the damage will be once the sun heats everything back up and the roof is revealed once again.
Contact HotEdge to learn more about our ice melt systems and how they can help prevent ice dams on your home. We are here to help you rest easy during the cold winter months.
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How To Keep Ice From Forming On Your Roof
To keep icicles and ice dams from forming at the edge of your roof, you have a few options:
Removing snow from the overhanging parts of the roof is an effective method. No snow means no ice dams! This takes time and energy, however. And if youd rather entrust the chore to a specialist, be prepared to pay.
Installing electric heating cables is another proven method. The cables keep ice from forming and allow water to run off normally. You can choose an automated system, which ensures that the cables switch on by themselves whenever conditions are conducive to ice formation. The rest of the time, theyll stay switched off. That way, you cant leave them on by mistake and waste electricity.
How To Prevent Ice Dams Before They Form
With winter rearing its ugly head here in Cleveland, its time to start thinking about how to prevent roof damage from ice and snow. Ice dams can cause major damage inside and outside your home, and working on home repairs during an Ohio winter is not ideal. Take a look at how to prevent ice dams from forming on your roof to stop water damage in your attic.
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All About Ice Dams And Your Roof: How To Fix Prevent And Repair
The most popular roofing systems involve asphalt shingles, and most homeowners can count on that roof to remain intact and protecting everything underneath it for at least 20 years, barring massive storms.
Unfortunately, winters in the upper Midwest can offer some pretty severe weather that do significant damage. Among the worst culprits are ice dams. What are they? How do they form and what do they do to your roofing system? Furthermore, how can you prevent them from happening, and how do you approach making repairs when they do occur? Lets take a deeper look into the issue.
Does Insurance Cover Ice Dams
If an ice dam damages your roof, dont fret. Its common for homeowners insurance to cover ice dam damage. American Familys standard homeowners policy covers sudden and accidental damage from leaking roofs and damage from weight of ice, snow or sleet.
If you have more concerns about your roof insurance coverage or youd like to learn how your homeowners insurance protects your roof and everything under it, connect with your American Family Insurance agent theyve got the answers you need.
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Ice Dams: How They Form Quick Fixes And Prevention
If you fail to clear the ice dam on the edge of your house now, you could be looking at serious problems later.
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. – Icicles forming along the roof of your house may look picturesque but they could be a big problem and lead to an even bigger one if you don’t solve them and also prevent them from happening again.
Over the past few weeks, the snow has piled up outside southeast Michigan. Now that the temperatures climb above freezing, you’ll notice icicles dripping off your gutters or the edge of your roof. When they fall, they can rip the gutter off, loosen shingles, and cause water to leak inside.
Not only that, as the dams form, they can lift shingles and the water will push into your home. Once inside, you could be looking at a soggy problem in your attic, stained ceilings, peeling paint, and much worse as it drips down.
“Once the water is inside your house, it can cause paint to peel, floors to warp, and soggy insulation that could lead to mold and mildew,” says Adrienne Woodland, spokesperson, AAA The Auto Club Group. “Additionally, ice dams can cause major damage to the roof by loosening shingles or tearing off gutters.”
How To Prevent Ice Dams
Of course, the best thing to do is prevent it so that when the snow melts, you can watch it from the comfort of your couch and rest easy.
Remember how heat from the attic melts the snow? That’s a great spot to start to prevent this.
Increase ventilation through the use of soffit, gable, and ridge vents. Moving air helps circulate air through the attic to ensure a consistent temperature.
Check your insulation – is it blocking any vents? Is it deep enough? you may need more to keep the heat from the inside of your house from escaping to your roof.
Quick tip: improving your insulation will also save you money on your gas or electric bill as it should be cheaper to heat your home.
If you’ve still got ice dams or want a cheaper solution than blowing insulation, heated cables work as well. You can line them along the first three feet of your roof and plug them in to heat up before the snow. This will prevent snow from stacking up at the edge of your house and over the eaves.
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If A Home Has A Lot Of Snow On Its Roof Is That A Concern
“Just because you have snow doesn’t always mean the house is going to have ice dams,” Noffke said.
If a home has had ice dams in the past or the homeowner sees “a bunch of ice” on the roof already, then they should beware.
If a home has big icicles hanging from its gutters, Klimas said that could be a sign of an ice dam.
If a homeowner can safely look in the attic, Klimas suggested checking whether there’s frost on the underside of the roof.
If there is, that means “a lot of moisture” has gotten into the attic and frozen.
“When it warms up, we get calls all the time from people who think their roof is leaking when it’s actually just condensation in their attic that is melting now that temperatures are heating up,” he said.
What Causes Different Roof Surface Temperatures
Since most ice dams form at the edge of the roof, there must be a heat source warming the roof elsewhere. This heat primarily comes from the house. In rare instances, increased heat from the sun may cause these temperature differences.
It is primarily heat flowing from the house that causes the nonuniform temperatures of the roof surface leading to ice dams.
Heat from the house travels to the roof surface in three ways: conduction, convection and radiation.
- Conduction is heat energy traveling through a solid. A good example of this is the heating of a cast iron frying pan. The heat moves from the bottom of the pan to the handle by conduction.
- If you put your hand above the frying pan, heat will reach it by the other two methods. The air right above the frying pan is heated and rises. The rising air carries heat/energy to your hand. This is heat transfer by convection.
- Heat also transfers from the hot pan to your hand by electromagnetic waves and this is called radiation. Another example of radiation is to stand outside on a bright sunny day and feel the heat from the sun. This heat transfers from the sun to you by radiation.
Adding insulation
In a house, heat moves through the ceiling and insulation by conduction through the slanted portion of the ceiling. In many homes, there is little space in regions like this for insulation, so it is important to use insulation with high R-value per inch to reduce heat loss by conduction.
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What To Know About Ice Dam Prevention
Ideally, you want to avoid ice dams from ever forming in the first place. To do this, you will need to tackle the problem at its source your attic and your roof.
You want to create a situation where the roof always remains close to the outside temperature, requiring removing heat sources within the attic and creating sufficient ventilation through the attic and roof.
Ice Dam Protection And Prevention:
As some of these problems are unavoidable, the surefire solution to preventing water damage due to ice damming is to include a waterproof membrane below your final roof covering at the bottom edge of the roof. This membrane will allow any water that does back up beneath the shingles to be safely drained off the roof.
A bottom metal surface is another common practice as this allows any ice that forms to slide right off. While this works, it can be a safety issue, so be sure it cannot drop on any common traffic areas.
Covering an entire roof with a waterproof membrane is a practice that seems to have taken hold over the last 15 years or so this will certainly solve ice damming problems, but it requires a significant investment of cash that would have been better applied to reducing heat loss through better air sealing and additional insulation.
Thermal bridging can be avoided in new builds by ensuring the roof has a high enough pitch and adequate overhang so there is enough room to ventilate and insulate properly. Including high-heeled trusses raises the top deck of the roof to create more space for ample insulation.
Fibrous insulation like cellulose and fiberglass insulation range around R3-4 per inch where spray foam is closer to R6 per inch. The high ecological cost that comes with spray foam stops us from recommending it except for very urgent circumstances and this can be such a case.
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How To Prevent Ice Dams: 5 Winter Rooftop Strategies To Try Right Now
Last Updated on December 22, 2020 by Diana Rodriguez-Zaba
If were lucky, our first snowfall gets the kids outside to play and covers the city in a beautiful white blanket. It also starts the freezing and melting process that forms ice dams on the eaves.
You cant stop the snow, and you cant stop the thaw, so how do you put ice dam prevention strategies in place to protect your home?
It takes a little planning to be ready for that next wave of ice along the roofs edge. Being prepared reduces the chances of climbing a ladder and breaking up the mess. You also minimize the risk of a leaky roof and ice dam water damage cleanup.
Lets get started.
Heat Loss By Air Leakage
There is another type of convection that transfers heat to the attic space and warms the roof. In the diagram, the winding arrow beginning inside the house and going through the penetration in the ceiling, from the light fixture to the attic space, illustrates heat loss by air leakage. In many homes this is the major mode of heat transfer that leads to the formation of ice dams.
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Eliminating Attic Heat Sources Helps Prevent Ice Damming
Creating ventilation is just the first step. You also need to remove all heat sources that would create heat in the attic. There are some areas to check in this regard, including:
- Attic insulation. The attic floor needs proper insulation to keep the lower floors heat from exiting through the ceiling. The Insulation Institute has an insulation calculator to determine what type of insulation you should use, based on your zip code. Use this calculator and install the suggested insulation. If you are not sure, going with the highest R-value would be the best choice. It is better to be over insulated than under-insulated. This calculator is an awesome tool as it can give you a reasonable estimate of what you need based on a few factors, including your heat source and whether the home is new or not.
- Recessed ceiling lights. If there are recessed ceiling lights installed into the lower floors roof, they need to be insulated. These lights can produce a surprising amount of heat, all of which can contribute to the ice dam problem.
- Folding stair openings. The stairs that you pull down to go up into your attic need to be insulated as well. Some excellent options provide an insulated cover that can be put at the base of the top of the stairs opening. Having an insulation cover will protect quite a bit of the heat from entering the attic. This, of course, will also allow you to save on your homes energy bill. A nice side benefit when trying to prevent ice damming!
