Any ideas for dealing with ice dams?

[Twoboos]

We're having an ice dam problem on one section of our house. We used the roof rake last night but apparently it wasn't enough (the pitch and location of the roof make it hard to get enough snow off) and water is dripping at a high rate through our bedroom windows. I am swapping out beach towels hourly.

So, besides getting rid of the ice (I have a call in to a guy, we don't have a ladder tall enough, and I couldn't do it by myself anyway) which is a short term solution, what can we do as a long term/permenant solution?

I guess we need an insulation person to see if we have enough insulation in that section of roof - there is a head vent in the attic right there, so that's probably part of the problem. Maybe heat cables - does anyone have this, I have heard it degrades the roof over the long term?

Apparently they didn't put enough (or any) ice and water shield under the roof when they replaced it 2 years before we bought the house. It costs basically nothing and would have saved us so much trouble!!!

[lil_acorn]

Too late for your present situation but I've seen people stringing the heaters along the bottom of their roof line to melt the snow. Not sure what they're called but they go in a zigzag along the bottom of their roof.

[pastrygirl]

I feel for you!! We dealt with that a lot in the front and back of our house and finally had it all fixed a couple of years ago. I don't know what we did during the acute situation... lots of buckets, roof rake. But our roof also turned out to not have proper flashing (?) -- they just stopped when the roll ran it, it appears. We had that fixed; they tore up the roof and did it properly. We had to pull out all the rotted wood (aka, tear down the walls and rebuild). We changed the roofline in the front of the house to redirect water. Had the doors replaced and put in storm doors, too.

It was a mess. We had heat cables put up there because it was such a problem. Insurance covered a lot of it, but we had to do it twice over the years because first time wasn't enough of a fix (they basically just painted over the water stains. yah, big help!). We also put a small area of tile by the back door so that we wouldn't end up with rotted wood again.

[Twoboos]

Too late for your present situation but I've seen people stringing the heaters along the bottom of their roof line to melt the snow. Not sure what they're called but they go in a zigzag along the bottom of their roof.

Yah that's what's supposed to degrade the roof. At this point I don't care - let the roof go bad too soon, we can reroof and make sure there is enough ice and water shield, and that it's all done right!!

And of course we can't do it now. Still trying to get someone who can get the ice off for the time being. Ugh.

[Mommy_Mea]

Keeping the roof cold is a major key. So the proper amount of insulation in the attic, but ALSO lots of ventilation in the attic to keep pulling out any trapped warm air.

We were able to help a lot of our ice dam issues with this combination, but we have a very simple roof that lent itself well to that fix.

[westwoodmom04]

Yah that's what's supposed to degrade the roof. At this point I don't care - let the roof go bad too soon, we can reroof and make sure there is enough ice and water shield, and that it's all done right!!

And of course we can't do it now. Still trying to get someone who can get the ice off for the time being. Ugh.

We didn't have any leaking problems, but a section of our roof has a very low pitch and when we replaced the roof, they covered that whole section with ice shield.

[nfceagles]

Keeping the roof cold is a major key. So the proper amount of insulation in the attic, but ALSO lots of ventilation in the attic to keep pulling out any trapped warm air.

We were able to help a lot of our ice dam issues with this combination, but we have a very simple roof that lent itself well to that fix.

Yeah that. Is there anything you can do right now to let the warm air out of the attic. We have a couple windows in our attic we could open. It's the warm air from your house that is melting the snow and ice from the underside.

[Momit]

We have the same problem and are getting more insulation in our attics and one of those little heaters along the gutter line. Our windows are ok but our front porch is a sheet of ice from all the dripping.

[Twoboos]

So I woke up this morning and found leaks in a new spot - our brand new kitchen at the windows and ceiling above the windows!! :crying: There is a guy here now breaking up the ice, but we are supposed to get another storm tonight.

It sounds like heat cables are the way to go, but we can't do that until the spring when the snow is gone. I have an insulation person coming to check out the situation on Tuesday, which is good as we have a couple of other spots that are clearly under-insulated (DD2's room is freezing in winter and hot in summer). But they are backlogged and can't schedule anything until late March.

In the meantime, I guess I need to be on someone's schedule - if it snows, come out and rake/de-ice our roof.

PSA - if you get a new roof make sure they use 5+ feet of ice/water shield before they put the shingles on!!!

[Twoboos]

Yeah that. Is there anything you can do right now to let the warm air out of the attic. We have a couple windows in our attic we could open. It's the warm air from your house that is melting the snow and ice from the underside.

I'm pretty sure the problem in our bedroom is there is a heat duct right above the window that's leaking, probably the radiant heat from that is causing the problem. But it's in a little crawlspace, I don't know how someone could get in there to check if that's it let alone add more insulation! This other leak - I don't know what's causing that one. But I think it all starts b/c of where the heat ducts are on the 2nd floor and just rolls on down the wall until it finds an escape.

It's amazing how much water a little drip can make. :thumbsdown:

[octmom]

Ugh. We had this happen just over four years ago and it sucked. We woke up early on Christmas morning 2009 to the sound of water dripping inside. My husband and father spent most of the day outside in sleet (on top of two feet of snow) trying to clear the gutters. Not fun. The thing that worked best for us was hooking up a hose to hot water from the sink in the garage and using the hot water to melt the ice that was backing everything up. I also made these crazy contraptions with pantyhose filled with ice melt and tied rope to them, then tossed them over the gutters in a few spots around the house. It looked really tacky, but helped. Don't leave them there after the ice melts because it will stain the roof. I found these ideas online. We have since replaced our gutters, put on gutter guards, and had more soffet vents added. That seems to have done the trick, but we don't often get crazy snow like we had that year. We had more than a foot on Wednesday- Thursday, but it is melting now and we haven't had an issue.

Good luck!

[trales]

Last year DH ended up on the roof with an pick axe and we had serve pro inside the house. Now we have a lot more insulation in the attic and use a roof razor. It was expensive, but oh it is so easy to use and so much better than a regular roof rake. We use it every time we get any snow on the roof.

[azzeps]

Being in the HVAC business makes me wonder if sealing your ducts in the attic might help, as well as the insulation.

We lived in a townhouse that had this problem. It was a nightmare because we didn't own the roof and had to wait on the HOA. I feel your pain! It causes so much damage.

[ahisma]

As a band-aid solution, there are pucks (or maybe pellets) of de-icer that you can throw up there. My FIL comes and tosses them on all of our roofs.

[maestramommy]

Yes, beefing up insulation helps. Dh doubled it a few years back, it not only cut down the ice dams it cut our heating bill substantially. Our main point of entry for warm air is the ventilator fan in one of the bathrooms. Dh tapes over that in the winter so we can't use it.

[scriptkitten]

So I woke up this morning and found leaks in a new spot - our brand new kitchen at the windows and ceiling above the windows!! :crying: There is a guy here now breaking up the ice, but we are supposed to get another storm tonight.


we discovered this exact thing last night... in a newly remodeled kitchen!!!!! GRRRRRRR

[Twoboos]

we discovered this exact thing last night... in a newly remodeled kitchen!!!!! GRRRRRRR

Oh noooo, I'm so sorry!! It's the last thing you want to see when you've spent so much time/money/energy/didImentionMONEY remodeling the kitchen, or any room for that matter.

The guy is here again removing ice. I think I'm going to have him come back tomorrow and do snow removal, so then it can be 40 degrees for a few days and everything can melt away until the next storm. And the insulation guy is coming today to assess.

This is just exactly how I'd like to be spending money right now. Not.At.All. :banghead: :gloomy: <-not rain but leaks…..

[scriptkitten]

Oh noooo, I'm so sorry!! It's the last thing you want to see when you've spent so much time/money/energy/didImentionMONEY remodeling the kitchen, or any room for that matter.

The guy is here again removing ice. I think I'm going to have him come back tomorrow and do snow removal, so then it can be 40 degrees for a few days and everything can melt away until the next storm. And the insulation guy is coming today to assess.

This is just exactly how I'd like to be spending money right now. Not.At.All. :banghead: :gloomy: <-not rain but leaks…..


we have guys up there now racking up $300/hr