Henry's Housework - providing deck cleaning, roof repairs, gutter cleaning in Montgomery County, MD

How can I prevent ice dams?

Properly ventilating and insulating the attic is usually the best way to prevent ice dams. The usual recommendation for venting is 1 square foot of vent for every 150 feet of attic floor area but very few houses are vented properly. If you have small louvered windows at either end of the attic, known as gable vents, you can either replace them with larger vents or install an electric vent fan over them. These fans will pull outside air into the attic and keep the temperature inside cooler.

How can I remove an existing ice dam?

Properly removing an ice dam can be quite dangerous if you don't know how. In the past the media suggested hiring a contractor to pull the gutters off your home so the whole ice dam process would be solved. This suggestion was well intended but wrong. Contractors that started removing gutters caused significant damage to roofing and guttering systems all over the state. Then when the snow melted it dropped next to the homes foundation and caused basement flooding.

WARNING!
Performing ice dam removal is risking personal injury and damage to the roof. Always contact a professional with roofing experience to carry out this job.

Immediate action: Remove snow and ice dam from the roof, this eliminates one of the ingredients necessary for the formation of another ice dam. Use a roof rake and push broom to remove snow and the ice dam, but it may damage the roofing if done by an inexperienced contractor.

Also remember, do not use water to melt the snow!

What is An ice dam?

An ice dam is a wall of ice that forms at the edge of the roof, usually at the gutters or soffit. The water then backs up behind the ice dam and creates a pool of water. This pool of water can leak into a home and cause damage to walls, ceilings, insulation, and other areas.

Ice dams are usually caused by improper ventilation in the attic. This causes warmer areas in your attic then the snow begins to melt, even when the outside temperature is well below freezing. When the accumulated snow on your roof starts melting it runs down your roof underneath the snow until it reaches a "colder" section and it begins to freeze again creating an ice dam. These colder areas are usually above the soffits or in valleys and gutters.
Cleaning the gutters on your home can help prevent ice dams from occurring as quickly but they can still occur. The gutters will be just as cold as it is outside and in some cases, full of frozen debris. So even if you don't have a soffit for the water to re-freeze in, the melted water will most likely re-freeze when flowing into the gutters.

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