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Re: OT: How to deal with ice dams? Posted by Snowmobile [Email] ![]() ![]() ![]() In Reply to: OT: How to deal with ice dams?, Bill Homer ![]() |
If the ice + water was properly applied, there shouldn't be leakage, especially at only 18 months. First off, the architecture of that house is awesome. Old houses are special, that is for sure. With all those nooks and crannies around the dormers and chimney, I would have applied ice and water shield very liberally (like covered most of the roofing surface), with careful attention to the overlaps. Hopefully there is suitably applied metal flashings to manage runoff in the valleys and where things drip, because the steep rooflines will let water run quickly... hopefully your flat roof is really good! I guess the other thing that is not clear in the photo is where the gutters go - do they have enough slope to drain to a downspout? A lot of water is going to go down that main valley and it has to end up somewhere... check that it is sloping out the main roof (to the left of the picture)... there should be a downspout there I would hope?
After all of that, the preventative measure I would take to avoid future ice dams is to ensure that you have appropriate attic ventilation and insulation. If you are not well enough insulated/ventilated, there will be more freeze/thaw activity on the roof. Usually weak points occur near the bottom edge of the roof. From the looks of things, the edge of your roof is partway up the walls of some rooms, so if this is original old construction, there could be limited amounts of insulation there or blocked air spaces... a great way to leak warm air from the building and/or block external ventilation, eg via the plate for the wall, (if your soffits are ventilated at all). This combo is perfect for causing ice dams. You seem to have a combination of gable and ridge vents. I really like how those look, but I'm starting to wonder how great ridge vents are in a northern climate. They get covered in snow and it can take a while to get the ventilation back to normal. We have had that problem with ours. Also, they work best with soffit intake vents, not gable vents, but you may have little other choice given the shape of your roof. In general though, I think a centrally mounted Max-Air would give better ventialtion than the ridge with the gable vents... they look kind of overbearing though.
In the short term, I'd get a snow rake and pull some of that crap down, and maybe put a heating cable on there if you want to melt the ice off faster... I've never had to do that, but the cables are cheap if you don't mind accessing the roof.
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