Roofing Tips: Ice Dam? What’s That?
If you live in an area of the country that gets a lot of snow, then you may already know about ice damming. Or perhaps you live an area that gets a lot of snow, but you are not familiar with the term.
As you can see in the photo an ice dam looks quite menacing, and actually can be. Ice damming is caused when the heat from the home or building is lost through the attic and melts the snow on the roof which drains down to the eaves where there is no heat loss (no attic) causing it to pond and then refreeze. As more snow melts, more water drains and refreezes on top of the already frozen melt off and forms am ice dam.
So, how do you help prevent ice dams from happening on your roof? The best solution is to make sure you have proper insulation in your attic and adequate ventilation on your roof. In theory, this will keep the roof temperature as close to the outside temperature as possible allowing the snow to melt and drain off more evenly.
Read more about this topic here on our blog:
Photo courtesy of Dealing with Ice Dams. The same article addresses more roofing tips – what you can do if you are currently in an ice dam situation on your roof.