Ice Damming: What It Is... And How to Avoid It

You spend good money installing a roof on your facility. A quality roof is an investment you expect to last for years, not months. So why would a roof face problems from “ice damming” within just a few months after installation?

One client faced just such a situation when water infiltrated their roof about four months after their new roof was installed. Even a high-quality roof can’t protect you against the ravages of ice damming if you don’t take preventative action before it happens.

Cooper Roofing stands ready to help you get ice damming under control!

The following is a true story.

The customer on the phone was furious. Just four months earlier he had installed a brand new roof. A severe winter storm had set in, creating a dangerous ice dam in his downspouts and the water from the snow and ice thawing on his roof backed up into his house.

“What do you mean this isn’t covered under my guarantee? The roof is leaking!”

Sometimes what looks like the truth isn’t the truth.

As it turns out, his roof wasn’t leaking. In fact, the roof had saved him from real damage from the storm.

Roof’s, though, aren’t designed to be “submerged” in water. Shingle roofs are especially designed with overlapping tiles that are meant to “shed” water. When they are properly installed downward, and even driving, rain will flow down the roof, into the downspouts, and away from the home.

But if the flow of water is blocked in the downspout, that’s when things can get messy.

The ice dam that had built up in the homeowner’s downspouts and gutters caused the runoff water to back up. The roof was now submerged in water and that water needed somewhere to go. What looked like a “roof leak” turned out to be directly attributable to the snow and ice pack in the downspouts. A telltale sign of this kind of trouble is when you can look up at your downspout and see water draining over the edge during a storm or snow thaw, not flowing out the spout and away from the house.

Slowly the homeowner started to come to grips with his situation, but he still wasn’t happy. “I still can’t believe I’m getting stuck with all this!” he explained.

That was when we explained the way insurance companies view ice damming. According to insurance companies, ice damming is considered an “Act of God,” not the indication of faulty workmanship. Once ice dams up and water runoff is blocked there is nothing a roofer can do to keep the water from flowing up under the shingles.

The owner finally understood the situation. “So what you’re saying is that ice damming isn’t a defect in the roof. It’s the result of unstoppable winter weather conditions.”

It took patience and respect to help this customer understand the problem, but that’s the way Cooper Roofing approaches every relationship.

Many roofers will just let a customer go their way at that point. The roof is on, the problem isn’t caused by the roofing, so they will just leave the owner to their own devices to try to protect their house in the future.

Cooper took a different approach. We tried to help the homeowner understand what he could do to help minimize the potential for future ice damming.

“There are several things you can do to help avoid this in the future. For starters, reducing the amount of heat that flows up through your attic is one way to help reduce the problem. If your attic isn’t insulated properly, this is a good place to start. A self-sealing membrane under the shingling is another thing that helps, but it’s no guarantee that the water won’t still infiltrate. Another thing that helps is to insure that you have proper ventilation in the attic.”

The “how and why” of ice damming is a full subject in itself. The experts at Cooper Roofing Corporation know how to install roofing that is resistant to damage and can help you identify the potential for ice damming problems in and around your roofing systems. Though there are a few things you can do to minimize your chances of ice dam damage, it’s best to let the pros assess your property and give you first-hand guidance.

Here are a few of the methods you can use yourself to help avoid ice dams and have yourself protected before the winter storm season arrives.

• Be sure all your drainage systems are open. Debris in the drain lines will almost always create ice dam related problems.
• Cut back trees that can drop debris into your gutters and hammer drainage.
• If you can safely access your roof, fill up a leg of an old pair of pantyhose with calcium chloride and lay it perpendicular to the edge of the roof. It will look like a tube running up the roof with part of it overhanging into the gutter. This will help keep an open channel between the melting area on the upper roof and the edge of the roof where the water will run off the roof safely.
• You can install heat tracer wires ($100 or more) in your gutters and downspouts to help keep your draining flowing. Available at Home Depot and other hardware suppliers, they have a limited life span of no more than a few years.
• For commercial or non-profit installations we have also custom installed more sophisticated heater systems which can cost several thousand dollars. These systems include temperature and precipitation sensors which help reduce energy usage and maximize efficiency.
• If you can reach your roof safely, a roof rake can help you clean snow off your roof.
• In the event of an ice dam during cold weather, cool your attic as much as possible to help slow the flow of water. By using a common box fan to circulate cold air into the area of the leak you may be able to slow the flow.
• If your bathroom vents do not go all the way to the outside, consider doing this. The warm, humid air that they can pump into the attic can increase the temperature in the attic and create an ice dam environment.
• Ensure that any ceiling lights that are installed into the attic floor are sealed properly to minimize heat loss into the attic.
• Warm water pumped through a garden hose can be used to unblock an ice dam from below.
• If you have a flat roof, “Dam Busters” are blocks of condensed salt that are placed near the gutter and drain outlets in the fall. Lasting one winter season, they are designed to activate when they come in contact with moisture.

Cooper Roofing Corporation - 610.275.7663 (ROOF)