Ice dam section view

Ice dams occur when temperatures are low and there are a few inches of snow on the roof. The only way to make it stop is by removing the ice and giving the water a place to flow safely off the roof.

It is extraordinarily dangerous work, so if you are going to do it on your own please wait until you can get a friend to help.

You can also hire a roofing contractor to do the work for you.

The right weather conditions for ice dams is usually when outside air temperatures are in the low 20s (°F) for several days with several inches of snow on the roof.

Research shows keeping the attic air temperature below freezing when the outside air temperature is in the low 20s can reduce the occurrence of ice dams. Research has also shown that sun exposure in the winter has little effect on attic air temperature. Warm air from living spaces below penetrating into the attic is usually the culprit in the formation of ice dams.

Edit 2/14/10

Watching the news for any more than 25 minutes will have pains shooting down your left arm; their job is to terrify you. They want you upset so you stay tuned during the Folger’s Coffee commercial. Most of what they are saying about the snow on your roof is pretty much all wrong.

When to worry:

1) You have water coming in through the tops of your windows or water coming in along the outside walls. If water is leaking into your house you must stop it, the only way to do that is to remove the huge chunks of ice that have grown along your gutter.

2) You heard an unmistakable cracking sound and then you saw a crack in the drywall at the ceiling or wall. If you saw or heard anything like that then the roof you are under is over loaded. NOTE: Residential roofs almost never fail catastrophically, under the current snow load you have a better chance of winning the lottery than you do of having your roof wind up in your basement.

When not to worry:

1) If your roof isn’t leaking now then chances are it probably won’t.

2) You have huge piles of ice on your gutter; it will melt, relax. The worst that can happen is that the gutter falls off, move the glass patio table out of the way so nothing else gets damaged.

If you are having leaking call us, we can help. Dont waste your money hiring someone to remove the snow from your roof because the anchor man with the comb-over  scared you into it.

When the snow and ice are gone you can call me to inspect for any damage.

Tom