How you can Prevent Ice Dams and also the Roof Leaks They Create

Below we are in the midst of another Roofing Contractor chilly Massachusetts winter season and also like every winter right here in New England lots of homeowner will certainly have significant issues with ice dams triggering roofing leakages and tile damages.

Although it could seem as though ice dams are an unstoppable pressure of nature, they are in fact fairly avoidable. Attics as well as basilica or vaulted ceiling areas that have been correctly incorporated into the total building envelope don't have problems with ice dams as well as icicles in the winters. Through making use of proper insulation and also air flow techniques ice dams can be quit cold (pun meant).

Right here a regular scenario for the formation of ice dams:

A house has an accumulate of snow on the roofing system. The temperature level exterior is below freezing. The temperature inside the attic is above cold, thus increasing the temperature of the roofing itself to over freezing. Due to the cozy roof covering, the snow in addition to it starts to melt from all-time low up. This dissolved snow water aims to diminish as well as off the roofing system. When the water gets to the edge of the roof covering it obtains exposed to the cold air. The water refreezes as ice rather than snow in the seamless gutters, if existing, and also along the sides of the roof. As increasingly more dissolved snow water continues to run down the roofing system it simply maintains cold behind as well as on top of the previously frozen escape, developing a larger and larger ice dam.

So Exactly how Do Ice Dams Create Roof covering Leakages?

The dissolved snow water doesn't instantly ice up any longer after the ice dam has started to take shape. As soon as the ice dam has developed a bit it actually develops a dam that catches the remainder of the water attempting to run off the roof covering behind it. While this trapped water will at some point freeze, it may take a while and throughout that time a section of the shingles on this roof, behind the ice dam, are basically immersed in water.

Currently of course your roof tiles are clearly expect to safeguard your home from the climate i.e. rainfall and also snow. Nonetheless, the majority of roof products are not suggested to have a pond or river in addition to them.

So Exactly what Can You Do To stop Ice Dams?

Most importantly you have to acknowledge that proper insulation and also ventilation is the key(see photo on right). If we are speak about an attic location after that commonly this means that the insulation should add the wall surfaces of your home then over the attic flooring joists forming an optimal insulation envelope. In the attic situation just the floor of the attic room need to be shielded, not the underside of the roof covering!

Appropriate ventilation is also needed. Outside air has to have the ability to get in the attic to ensure that the attic room temperature level coincides as the temperature outside. You achieve this ventilation with making use of gable vents, soffit vents as well as a roof ridge vent.

In roof systems with attic areas listed below them it is rather easy to have a professional that recognizes just what they are doing to correct any problems regarding appropriate insulation and air flow. However, roof systems with a sanctuary ceiling below them that have these issues are much more of a project to fix, but they can be dealt with.

In order to have actually a properly aerated and also insulated sanctuary ceiling the contractor have to mount baffles within each rafter bay before installing the insulation. These baffles allow air to flow between the soffit vents and the ridge air vent which keeps the bottom of the roofing the exact same temperature level as outdoors. If these baffles ore not installed in your basilica ceiling after that the service provider will should eliminate the existing sheetrock and also insulation from your ceiling in order to properly aerate the location. This sort of job will be much more costly than an attic project.

In addition to the ice dam issue, if your attic room is warmer than the outside temperature you are likewise squandering lots of loan heating that room. So generally you are paying extra money on your heating costs for the benefit of growing great large ice dams and icicles that trigger roof leakages as well as damage your roof covering. Type of makes it even worse when you think about it that way doesn't it?

What Can You Do Concerning Existing Ice Dams?

If it's the middle of the winter season and you have ice dams or via previous experience you think they will be creating quickly there are some procedures you could take. To start with, if you do not have experience getting on a roofing in the winter months, particularly with snow on it, don't do it! Call a pro. Just what you could do is go to your neighborhood equipment store and also get a snow rake that has an extendable manage created to draw snow off of the initial few feet of the roofing system as well as attempt to pull some of that snow off, from the ground, prior to it has an opportunity to thaw as well as refreeze along the roof edges. You can additionally do this when the ice dam has actually formed as well as maintain it from obtaining any kind of larger and also give it a chance to thaw, with any luck.

Also, lots of roofing contractors, us consisted of, work through the wintertime and typically give roofing snow elimination solutions in addition to their regular roof covering services. This is a service we are happy to offer our consumers here in Massachusetts, for example. Again, please do not attempt and do this yourself. In between icy ladders and also slippery roofing system surfaces it is a dish for calamity for the unskilled.

There are additionally some items on the marketplace that could aid in preventing ice dams prior to they develop and also thawing them if they have actually currently formed. You must be able to find a residence renovation store in your location that markets an item that is basically a layered, warmed cable that you secure along the edges of the roofing system then plug in when the conditions are best for the ice dams to form (see photo on right). These in fact work respectable, nonetheless, they typically aren't solving the actual issue which, of course, is ventilation as well as insulation problems. They might be appropriate for some residences in some situations though.

Many house renovation as well as hardware stores also sell pellets or tablet computers that are made to be vomitted onto the roof from the ground. These tablets then supposedly will thaw the ice from the roofing as they liquify into the water that is diminishing the roofing into the ice dam. I have no experience with these products so I can't claim for certain if they work as created or not. However, some individuals state they have worked for their ice dam problems. A few things I would be bothered with as a roofer is potential damages to the tiles from the chemicals these tablets are constructed from (salt is no good for asphalt tiles), along with potentially staining the roof with those same chemicals. As well as in a base case scenario this product is still simply a band-aid for a better issue.