Help stopping ice damage this year

[Jason Hirsch]

Afternoon-

The last two years I've had a severe icedam over the corner of one room that faces the bathroom. The bathroom's roof (upper) drops about

4 foot to the lower roof; the valley is interrupted when they diverge.

2 years ago I gutted the lower room, installed a ridgevent, added new insulation, new soffits- still had a bad icedam'd winter.

Last year (which was a bad year mind you) I had a similiar problem. This year I've added new soffits to the bathroom area to vent the heat above the shower.

Here's what I'd like to do as a temporary fix until I can find a roofer that is willing to close off the valley by extending the upper roof down to the lower one:

1) Ice/water shield above existing shingles to protect the bathroom wall (normall exposed). Cut at a 30 degree angle from valley down to lower roof. Tar leading edge tight.

2) Place heating / de-icing cable in tight formation around that bad edge. Double up near the wall to prevent any from leaking in.

3) Deicing cable on the Upper Roof above the area that is usually badly hit.

Here's where it gets odd tho...

4) Add Aluminum flashing from the valley out (mind you over shingles) and OVER the heating cable. They'll be about 4 foot long strips. Tar the seams. Tack each one in place with a pair of nails about 1 foot above the leading edge of the cable. Ice/water shield top of aluminum under the row of shingles.

I'll try and post a photo of the corner at

The last roofer I had subcontracted to a guy with no insurance- he did a horrible job... and ended up ripping both me and my neighbor off (at last I got a ridge vent for 1500$....) Everyone else I've talked with refuses to build out the valley, claiming this product or that product or prodigious amounts of ice/water shield will fix the area. Unfortunately, roof backpitches about 1 degree (into the bathroom area) because of house settling... can't get them to listen.

Suggestions very much welcome.

Jason Hirsch

[xrongor]

why not just get the snow off the roof to begin with?

randy

[Tom]

Randy wrote:>why not just get the snow off the roof to begin with?

Can be dangerous. Tom Work at your leisure!

[m Ransley]

Ice dams are caused by the melting and refreezing of snow. Somehow heat from below is entering the attic or your undervented trapping heat. I suggest you get a few real pros out to access your situation. It is impossible to do without a first hand look.

[xrongor]

ya dont stand under it hehe

[Stephen King]

"xrongor" wrote in news:clk6o2$8eun$ [e-mail]:

[Jason Hirsch]

Thanks Randy- heh.

Actually I do get up there and take all the snow off. Have a pair of rakes that I can drag most of it on down. Problem is, that doesn't help worth jack when the stuff refreezes to ice- can't rake that down.

So I get up there with the ladder and chip away ... or (as in the case last year) haul up 50lb bags of KCl ... to the tune of over 400lbs. Thats how I won last year.

The 'professionals' I've talked with all say the same thing. The neighbors around me all have the same roof style. Each has had it replaced by a 'professional' telling them that they alone do good work, everyone else sucks, and they alone will fix the problem right.

Every single one of their roofs has leaked in that corner.

Now, I hesitate to call all of those 'professionals' incompetent morons, but hey- if you're hawking all these new fix-all products to increase your profit margin I'm not too impressed with their success ratio (0 for 5 so far).

I have plenty of intake; the only thing short I could do is install an attic fan to increase it over the bathroom area and keep it chilled.

Even that will leave the exposed bathroom wall underinsulated and unsealed (50 year old T&G with aluminum siding over it).

So yeah, I'll be on the roof again this year.

[L. M. Rappaport]

FWLIW, the only fix I know is Grace Ice and Water Shield (or similar) UNDER the shingles. I don't see how it could possibly work above the shingles. That won't eliminate the ice buildup, but it does make the roof waterproof.