Ice-Dams, etc..

10 years ago

This year has been COLD, COLD, COLD. The worst...

Needless to say, I've had massive water damage to this house, when I feel pretty sure is due to ice-damns, and possibly condensation? The house is rather old I bought used.

I noticed the drywall at the top near every house corner has had water damage, which seems to match what happens with ice-damns.

I will probably have to have a mold specialist come in since i see black spots too.

While I am going to assume this will be hugely costly, and I'll need the whole drywalls and insulation replaced (maybe not the worst thing, as none of the cables upstairs here even has ethernet or ground cable, so I am so limited on use)...I'll try to get an electrician to re-wire the home while the drywall is replaced.

One of my biggest worries is after sinking in expensive repairs and reno.. .I"ll still have to worry again about ice-damns and the next round of water damage.

I keep hearing stories of contractors able to repair work, but have a tendency to never isolate the issue causing the problem to begin with. Curious who else has gone through this? Anyone been able to really stop an ice-damn issue without having to hire people every week to brush off snow? Not that I even count that as a real solution here...

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Comments (8)

christopherh
10 years ago
There's a material the roofer can put down that prevents ice dams. It's standard practice where this occurs.

The old timers up here in Vermont have roof rakes. They go out and scrape the first couple feet of snow off the roof edges. That prevents the ice dams.
sherwoodva
10 years ago
Ice dams can also occur if the gutters are not cleaned before winter sets in. We had one around the chimney and it damaged the plaster. Turned out that when the roof was replaced, they didn't bother to replace the old flashing.

If you can afford it, have a structural engineer come out and inspect your corners and tell you what caused the ice dams and how to prevent them. Before hiring one, ask if this is the sort of thing they do. Otherwise, a home inspector might be able to do it.
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I just made a long post to answer someone else's question about ice dams over on the Old House Forum. I'll attach a link. But your situation sounds slightly different. For first aid, I would take advantage of the slight moderation of temps and get up there and get the ice and slush knocked out of the gutters, ASAP. Start at the down spout point and clean up along the line to get past the point of blockage. A hair dryer can help, particularly if you have aluminum gutters. It won't do much to solidly frozen run, but to hasten the removal of slush it works OK. A flat panel paint burner can help, too, but takes some experience to avoid damaging the surrounding surfaces. With both these please use a GFI outlet to plug them in since you'll be awash in water and using an appliance at the same time. I would never allow anyone to use a torch to do this, though. Too dangerous. After the gutters are clear, and until you can make any necessary changes to insulation, slope of gutter, flashing, roofing or underlayment, etc., you will just have to rake the roof after every snowfall. It's not that hard to do. I always used to let my DH do it, but last year he was laid up so I found it could be done pretty easily. I was doing it on my second story this afternoon. The good thing is that ice dams seem to be an artifact of of early, unusually cold and snowy winters. Later on in the season the sun is higher and it's less of a problem. HTH, Molly Here is a link that might be useful: Ice dam question on Old House forum
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Coffeemama - I’m not sure you understand the reason for the ice dams. We had ice dams this year as well with water damage too. Even with freezing temperatures, if the insulation under your roof is not adequate, the heat is escaping through the roof and melting the snow. We had a hard time finding a contractor. I had a list of 10 from Angie’s List and went down the list. Had a couple of tentative promises to come and then no shows. We finally got an appointment for 5 days after the initial water started leaking. While we were waiting for them to come, I just couldn’t watch water keep coming into the house, so we called a local hardware store where we had received reliable advice in the past. They advised us to try to rake some of the snow off that we could reach without getting on the roof. And to buy pantyhose and calcium chloride and fill the stockings with that and place along the gutters on the ice. We called a family member to come and help, who advised that we get a ladder ‘stabilizer’ to add safety to putting the ladder against the house. They were able to get up to the gutters and using a roof rake pull off some of the snow they could reach and place the calcium filled stockings. This stopped the water from coming in and it stayed that way until the roofers came and got up on the roof and took all the snow off and knocked back some of the ice on the gutters. This was on the back of our cape that has a dormer on the back, so the roof is two stories high. In the front where the roofline is only one story high, my DH and son spent 5 hours pouring hot water on all the ice along the gutters in the front. It is a two person job, one person on the ladder, one ferrying the hot water pitchers back and forth. It did work though. Completely cleared the gutter in the front of ice. We could have done the same thing in the back, which is what we would have done if the calcium filled stockings had not done the trick. We've had to stay on top of it and keep getting the snow off the roof and take care of too much ice on the gutters. If I were you, I would call my home insurance policy holder and ask them to advise. They certainly don’t want you to continue to get water into your home and might have access to qualified contractors.
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geoffrey_b
10 years ago
Ice dams occur because of insufficient insulation and ventilation in the attic.

Think of the attic as a hat. It needs to be below freezing in the attic.

What happens is that the sun + heat from inside your home heats the attic, and the snow (at the peak of your roof) melts, and runs down the roof. When the melted snow gets to the eave, it freezes (cause the temp of the ever is below 32 deg) and creates an ice dam.

You need more vents in the eaves and more insulation in the attic.
toxcrusadr
10 years ago
The above posts sound right on to me. Condition of shingles and flashing, gutter cleaning, venting and insulation.

I would have an expert in roofing and insulation look at it, no need for a structural engineer.
jackfre
9 years ago
The winter of '11 was the worst in our 25 yrs in MA. We were closing on the house on2/28/11 and we had 5 weeks in a row with major storms. I had 4' of snow on the roof and in 25 yrs had never had a problem with ice dams or interior damage. Yes, clean the gutter and downspouts. Yes, check to make sure the insulation is laid correctly in the attic. Neighbors all over the area were loosing downspouts and gutters and suffering internal damage. You couldn't find peopel to beat the ice off the roof and if you could it frequently resulted in damage to the shingles/down sports and gutters. I had to have a contractor in to repair a wall and ceiling in the M bath. With the closing just a couple weeks away I had to do something.

I took 100' of garden hose, connected it to my tankless water heater. Installed a spray nozzle with a shower like pattern. Oh, first I shoveled the roof off. No small job on a 3000sq ft house. I began spraying hot water at the low end ( downspout end) of the roof. I ran hot water for 3 1/2 hours. At the end the roof was as clean as a summer day. There was no shingle or gutter damage. The neighbors, who thought and were possible correct, that I was nuts were asking for my help. Two things. Spray the water from the outside to the inside. Otherwise you will build up water above the ice dam creating more problems than you solve. Cut bread loaves, again to allow water to run off. One more thing. The back of my house was three stories to the ground. The front only two. Don't fall off the roof.

A side benefit was that the water run off melted the ice in the driveway. This just demonstrates that well and truly, there is more than one way to skin a cat!
pprioroh
9 years ago
Up on a 3 story ice covered roof spraying water for 3+ hours, what could possibly go wrong ;-)
evaf555
9 years ago
Two words: roof rake.

They still make 'em. There is only one plane on my house where the ice tends to build up. The south-ish side has flashing the last 12 inches and the sun on it during the day. The north-ish side is raked every time it snows.
christopherh
9 years ago
I use mine.

Ice-Dams, etc..

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christopherh

sherwoodva

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