Don’t be fooled by the beautiful icicles accenting your roof—these glistening daggers are a red flag for property damage. Icicles are indicative of ice dams forming on your roof’s eaves.
An ice dam is a ridge of ice that typically forms along the edge of a roof and prevents melting snow from draining off of the roof.
Ice dams can also form around skylights, vents, and anywhere two inclined sides of the roof meet (i.e., valleys).
Poor insulation and lack of adequate ventilation in the attic space causes the roof deck to heat up and melt the snow above. When it does, the water (AKA melted snow) flows down the roof and gets backed-up behind the dam with nowhere to drain off.
Not only does this pool of water eventually refreeze into more ice (and continue to grow in size), but in the meantime the water can work its way under the shingles (or other roofing material). At this point, the water can leak into the home or building, and quickly cause damage to walls, ceilings, insulation and other internal parts of the structure.
Here’s how ice dams form on your roof:
1. Indoor heat rises through the ceiling, into the attic, and warms the roof (from the underside). The shingles get warm.
2. Snow that has fallen on the now-heated part(s) of the roof melts. The melted snow then flows down the roof until it reaches the part of the roof that is lower than 32F (most commonly the overhangs). This water refreezes and begins to form an ice dam.
3. The dam gets bigger and bigger as more snow melts and refreezes. Water now begins to pool behind the increasingly large wall of ice.
4. Eventually, the water works its way through the shingles (or other roofing material) and flows through the roof decking and into the attic. From here it can seep through the ceiling, the interior walls, and into the rest of the building.
How to Prevent Ice Dams from Forming?
1. Rake your roof. The idea is that you stand on the ground or on a ladder, and use a long rake specifically designed for snow removal to pull the snow off of your roof. If you rake your roof after every snowstorm or every time your roof accumulates more than 6 inches of snow, you’ll most likely prevent or curb the formation of ice dams on your roof.
2. Get professional roof snow removal. This entails hiring a company to rake or shovel your roof for you.
3. Get your home inspected and improve your insulation and ventilation. The underlying cause of ice dam formation is too much heat collecting in the attic, which melts the snow on the roof, which refreezes and results in ice dams. By getting a professional inspection you can pinpoint whether your attic needs better insulation, ventilation, or both, so as to prevent ice dams from forming in the first place.
THE 905 REAL ESTATE GUYS
info@905realestateguys.com
Sean Kavanagh 905.220.9198
Leo Manchisi 905.334.9650