With the Winter quickly approaching across the country, we must prepare our homes to ensure that we have no or minimal damages this winter season. Unfortunately, ice damming has affected roofs and caused extensive damage to many homes the past two years. The good news is that if certain measures are taken, the chance of your roof developing ice damming can be reduced. In some cases, it can be prevented from happening altogether.
What is Ice Damming?
Ice damming is what results when snow accumulates on the top of your home and starts to melt due to the warmer parts of your roof. The water from the melted snow may drip off your home or it may collect in the valleys, around the chimney, skylights, sewer vents, on the eaves (the part where the trusses hang off and over the exterior walls) and drip metal, and in gutters.
Then, the water refreezes into ice as the temperatures lower. This ice may have already damaged your roof and other parts of your home at this point because of its expansion and weight. However, the destruction continues when the ice starts to melt again because now it drips and leaks into expanded areas like getting between the siding and the exterior walls and traveling to the drywall in the interior walls.
The ice that got under the shingles on the deck of the roof and around the flashing that was protecting the skylights, vents, and chimney can then leak into the attic and drip from the ceiling into your home. Furthermore, the water and ice beneath the fascia and soffit can even damage your eaves.
Do Something about the Warm Areas of Your Roof Now.
A Quality Roof Now can evaluate the warm spots of your roof. It is the warm spots or the warm air leaking and rising through the roof that is the cause of ice damming. This may be due to your home needing more insulation. The insulation, not only keeps the cold drafts from entering the home and the toasty warmth your heating system produced from exiting your home, it also traps the rising warm air so it can’t melt the snow that collects on your shingles during the winter. Another culprit of this rising air is the lack of roof ventilation.
If there is adequate insulation, that trapped air needs ventilation so it has a way to escape away from your roof and home. A Quality Roof Now is the place to turn to determine your home’s insulation and ventilation needs.
Contact A Quality Roof Now at 509-439-1783 today or visit us online for more information!