Ice Dams

mrwilsonthomas · 2005-12-05T20:41:48+00:00

Hello, I live in Philadelphia and had some problems with ice dams inthe back (north) side of my house after a big storm last winter. Ihave a split-level home with a pretty simple "A" roof (no valleys ordormer windows).I had a new roof installed in the spring and had the entire roofsurface covered with ice and water shield (I know that ice/water shieldwon't prevent dams from forming, but hope that it will minimize orprevent any leaking to occur inside the house in the event dams doform).I also had the roofer extend the eaves in the back of my house out toabout 1 foot, allowing for a continuous soffit vent to be installedunderneath the eave. A gable vent and two cap vents were previouslyinstalled in the roof as well.Finally, I am having my existing attic insulation upgraded (not muchthere right now at all).Should these measures be sufficient in order to prevent damage from icedams in the future, or are there other things that I should be doing aswell?

Dec 05, 2005 21 Replies

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Rick 20 years ago

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mrwilsonthomas 20 years ago

Interesting discussion re: temperatures. If it snows a decent amount (6" or so) and then the high tempartures over the next couple of days are around 40 degrees, with lows in the mid 20s, are you more prone or less prone to having ice dams forming? I'm wondering if it's a good or bad thing to have some thawing during the day, when runoff is just going to re-freeze overnight.

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