What is an Ice Dam?
An ice dam will form when snow that has accumulated on your roof melts and refreezes towards the colder roof edge. This water can back up under the roofing and leak inside your home. This could be bad news as it can cause extensive water damage to homes that don’t have any other history of leaking roofs.
How to Prevent Ice Dams
There are a lot of tips for protecting your roof from forming an ice dam and in turn protecting your home from water damage. One recommendation for preventing an ice dam is to maintain a cold roof. Here are some tips on how.
- Proper insulation – If your attic gets too warm it can heat your roof causing snow to melt. Lowering the temperature in your attic will help to lower attic temperature. By maximizing ceiling insulation, your home will lose less heat, which will keep your attic cooler. Adding weather-stripping or insulation on your attic stairways and hatchways will also help.
- Good ventilation – With adequate ventilation, you won’t have excess heat in your attic. Ventilation also removes vapors preventing dry rot and rust. If you maintain an open passage where cold air can pass through to the attic by keeping attic vents open all of the heat that rises within your home has a way to escape before your roof becomes too warm.
- Seal gaps and holes – Seal gaps around pipes and cables running from the rooms below with expanding foam or caulking and seal recessed lighting fixtures. Be sure you are properly sealing your light fixtures to prevent overheating and/or fires.
Plan a Back-up Defense System
By pairing a back-up defense, in addition to keeping your roof cool, you are sure to protect your home from any possibility of an ice dam or water damage.
- Manually remove snow – If you have a low or flat roof you can shovel off the snow to slow the growth of an ice dam. If your roof is steeper, you can remove the snow from just three to four feet up for the same results. You can purchase a roof rake specifically for this task.
- Electric heat tapes – Install in a zigzag along the lower edge of the roof where an ice dam may form as well as on the gutters. The wires clip easily to your shingles. You will need to install a weatherproof ground fault circuit interrupter outlet the edge of the roof on one end.
By taking precautions and having a secondary protection plan to protect your roof from forming an ice dam you will also be protecting your wallet from the costs of repairing your home from water damage. Be sure to perform any of these tasks or others in a safe manner.