When winter snow is piling up on your home, and the last thing you want to do is venture out into the cold to remove it. However preventing ice damming with proper snow removal can help you avoid severe damage to both the exterior and interior of your home.
What is Ice Damming?
The result of poor roof ventilation and warm attic space, ice damming occurs when a heavy snow melts on your roof and refreezes on its edges. When snow melts on your warm roof, it turns to ice on its edges once it has gotten past the heated attic space and to your roof?s cold edges or gutters, where temperatures are below freezing. The problem further compounds itself as the bottom layer of snow continues to melt, becoming obstructed by and then joining with the existing ice dam, making it larger and larger.
Ice damming can result in:
Ice dams don’t just effect your roof. They have consequences inside your home as well.
- Mold.
- Ruined paint, insulation, and drywall.
- Damage to your roof, gutters, and the structure of your home.
Snow removal can prevent ice damming
Use a roof rake to remove the lower 4 feet of snow from your roof?s edge.
Using this rake, which has a 16-21 foot handle and looks like a shovel turned on its side, will do a lot to prevent ice dams from even forming. The best part? You won?t need a ladder.
Use an ice melting product.
Calcium chloride and other products can be put directly on the ice to melt it. Be careful, however, as a ladder is required for this method which can be dangerous in icy conditions.
Call a Roofing Professional
If you end up with an ice dam it really is best to break out your checkbook and call a professional. A professional can safely deal with the ice dam using specialized equipment such as high pressure steamers. Professional snow removal and ice dam removal help is far less costly than damage to your roof, structure, and the contents of your home.
Ice Dam Prevention Tips
There are a few things you or a professional can do to help prevent ice dams from occurring.
- Keep gutters clean.
- Properly vent your attic space to reduce heat.
- Eliminate heat sources in your attic: poorly insulated lighting, improperly vented bathroom fans, and more.
- Increase attic floor insulation.
Do you have damage from ice damming resulting from this season’s bitterly cold winter? Contact the professionals at Adams Roofing. Adams Roofing has been providing trusted service to the Chicagoland area since 1978 and has the experience you need to ensure your roof doesn’t suffer from ice damming.
