Off Topic: Ice Dam

eclaire · Jan 27, 2011

Last summer, instead of spending the money to blow insulation into our roof, we elected to buy new ski equipment for myself, my husband and our daughter. I stand by that decision! :grin:

However, it has come back to haunt us because we've now developed a huge ice dam on the back of our house and it's beginning to leak into our kitchen. Before last night's storm that dumped another foot of snow on the roof, we cleared off the snow that we could get to and exposed about 8" of ice. Following the recommendation of a friend, we filled light socks with ice melt and laid them perpendicularly on the ice. This was supposed to create troughs that the water could flow through and off the roof. Difficult to tell if this worked, but if it did it isn't enough.

Short of calling a roofer who will charge me $300 per dam (there's another forming on the front of the house, I see), any suggestions on how to deal with this would really be appreciated.

Apologies in advance if I've broken some forum rule here by being off-topic, but I thought someone here might have some experience with this.

Many thanks!
claire

jaja111 · Jan 27, 2011

I would suggest laying the socks parallel to the fall of the roof instead. And instead of using socks, try nylon stockings (longer) laid above the dam. As water drips down the roof it will carry the ice melt with it underneath the dam and dislodge it. Another option - if you can find it - is an electric cord style heater. I know they exist but just haven't ever found one yet.

Other than the variations on your original plan there, that dam is there until the thaw and will continue lifting, peeling, and separating the roof allowing the water to enter - which is usually melting from either just the house's heat or classically a light fixture with an incandescent bulb. It would take a jackhammer to destroy it by any means other than melting it. Nylons filled with ice melter like calcium chloride - try it and not perpendicular.

Glenn · Jan 27, 2011

Read and article in the local free paper yesterday that said this has been a huge issue this year. One roofer says he hasn't seen this many issues with ice damming since the late 80's/early 90's.

We've got a little going on as well. I think it's creeping back into the soffit; not under the shingles. We had a new roof put on a few years ago and 3' of rubber ice guard was put on the edges. Brown icicles against a white house is an interesting sight.

mlctvt · Jan 27, 2011

+1 on the snow melt sock.
We had a problem with the earlier storm this year and read about these online. I got a few 40 lb buckets of ice melt and made a bunch of these ice melt socks. Works great! Cut nice channels in the ice in less than a day and the roof drains through the channels. I put one every 6 to 8 feet or so. Just refill or replace the socks when the ice melt disappears.
They last a while . Even through last nights 16'+ snow storm the channels were still clear of ice and snow

We put ours perpendicular from the front edge of the gutter to past the ice dam.

Glenn · Jan 28, 2011

Saw a little drip drip down stairs in VT yesterday afternoon. So, I spent an hour on the ladder chipping away. Thank God I left a small sledge hammer in the back of the Jeep. I had used it to pound in some end posts for the firewood stacks and never took it out. Had to be careful, that ice had backed up under some shingles and if you peeled it off....part of the shingle came too. Luckily, the house is an a frme, so I wasn't off the ground much. May try the ice sock idea back in CT. That roof is much higher.

RootDKJ · Jan 28, 2011

How big are these ice dams?

gmcunni · Jan 28, 2011

good thread!

i tried the above mentioned stocking trick last night, worked very well!

SkiingInABlueDream · Jan 28, 2011

Ive got ice dams on roof edges that are higher than my extension ladder goes. And one section that started leaking is over a section of attic that's virtually non-accessable (it's like a 1-ft crawl space) so trying to catch drip water in the attic would be a PITA. Any suggestions? (other than nothing can be done now)?

Glenn · Jan 28, 2011

I read online that some people threw the socks up on the roof. Maybe attaching some rope to them to you could drag them in place.

Root,
In CT, it looks like the gutters are overflowing with ice. In VT, they were about 3-4" tall, with big icicles. They went up the roof about 4-7".

RootDKJ · Jan 28, 2011

Glenn said:
I read online that some people threw the socks up on the roof. Maybe attaching some rope to them to you could drag them in place.

Root,
In CT, it looks like the gutters are overflowing with ice. In VT, they were about 3-4" tall, with big icicles. They went up the roof about 4-7".

Crap. I might have a bit of a problem in one spot. I'll try to get a pic tomorrow.

Glenn · Jan 28, 2011

Really good way to tell is ice on your siding. It looks like it appears out of nowhere. It's the water running beind the siding. Oh, and brown icicles on the siding too. That's the stuff the water picks up as it travels through the plywood or paper/tar backing behind the siding.

Oddy, I have no signs of leakage in the soffits in the attic. I think the ice and water guard is working. But it's getting in the actual soffit near where the gutter is mounted; small gaps in the wood there. That's my theory.

kickstand · Jan 30, 2011

What's the theory on using socks/panty hose for the ice melt? Any reason I can't just grab a few handfuls and throw it up on the roof? Is it just to keep it in place? I just noticed we have it pretty bad on the back of the house. Ice climbs up the shingles about 12-18" from the gutters. No signs of water in the basement or walls. I still need to check the attic, but it looked clear about 4 days ago.

eclaire · Jan 30, 2011

Well, we seemed to have fixed the problem. We bought a roof rake and took off all the snow that we could. Then, we filled socks with ice melt and placed them perpendicular to the dam with the ends hanging over the edge. We spaced them about every 4-6' across the roof.

By the end of the day, they had melted down and created channels for the water to run out. No more leaks in the kitchen. We'll have to keep it up all winter I guess, and improve our insulation before next year. Oh yes, we also stopped using the canned (recessed) lighting in the kitchen which gets quite hot and just use a couple of smaller pendant lights.

It was a PITA, but much better than dealing with the damage to our kitchen!

Thanks for the suggestions...

claire

ChileMass · Jan 30, 2011

Just spent 4 hours chipping the ice dams off my eaves with a rock hammer. A rip hammer with a 90* angle would probably work well also - better than a claw hammer with the turned down end. Chip carefully to avoid damaging the shingles.

Hauling and setting the ladder thru almost 3 feet of snow was a chore. Aluminum slides pretty good on snow, so I did that going around to the back of the house. Just be careful and go slow up and down - the rungs are slippery.

My elbow hurts - guess I have ice-dam elbow instead of tennis elbow........

wa-loaf · Jan 30, 2011

Not going to help anyone much right now, but have your attics insulated this summer. I had 18 inches of insulation put into the attic when I moved into my house as well as some air sealing. I have had virtually no melting.

smitty77 · Jan 30, 2011

ChileMass said:
Just spent 4 hours chipping the ice dams off my eaves with a rock hammer. A rip hammer with a 90* angle would probably work well also - better than a claw hammer with the turned down end. Chip carefully to avoid damaging the shingles.

Hauling and setting the ladder thru almost 3 feet of snow was a chore. Aluminum slides pretty good on snow, so I did that going around to the back of the house. Just be careful and go slow up and down - the rungs are slippery.

My elbow hurts - guess I have ice-dam elbow instead of tennis elbow........

Sounds a lot like my day... 5 hours total between the shoveling of the low-angle part of the roof on the back of the house and then busting up the ice dam at the end of said roof. Looks like I got to it before it found the underside of my shingles. The ice at the roof edge was a good 6-8" above the lip of the gutter. LOTS of chipping, but it's all down now.

Your recommendation of a rip hammer (with the straight claw) is spot-on - that's what I used along with a wrecking bar. I could tap on the bar where the ice met the shingle surface and use a little leverage to break most of the ice off in large chunks, football size and greater in most cases. Mind you, I was doing this while sitting on the roof and working toward the edge which is not for the faint of heart but it allowed me to work my way down the roof and not have to move the ladder a hundred times. Then I used the claw to whack away enough ice from the roof edge to hopefully keep it free for the rest of the winter. The house is only 7 years old and I've never had this problem - chalking it up to a bad winter but the roof edge will get pulled down with the roof-rake after after each storm now.

Greg · Jan 31, 2011

I'm going to go buy some panty hose today. :lol: And some ice melt. My roof is way too freakin' high for me to fathom climbing up onto it, but I'm going to try to get something up there from the upstairs windows. One trick I read was to tie on a "throw rope" onto the end of the ice dam sock. It helps you toss it up there, and also get them off. My damming doesn't look bad (newer home, 6 years old), but there is some. Not a ton of snow has collected on the roof as we live in a real windy area, but a neighbor had an internal leak. Apparently it followed a beam somehow and damaged a wall in the center of the house on the lower level. Still not sure how water traveled to that spot.

RootDKJ · Jan 31, 2011

powhunter · Jan 31, 2011

Spent the last 4 1/2 hours shoveling the roof today...Man what a workout! I Used a nylon rope as a safety line and tied it o a tree on the other side of the house. Worked out real well and saved my ass twice!

steveo

billski · Jan 31, 2011

We are in the process of managing two substantial ice dams. There is enough damage internally that there will be an insurance claim.

I've had them on other houses and found that whacking away with a hammer to be futile because the next day more snow would melt more and block the dam. I've never used the sock thing, I will be interested in hearing how it works over the course of an entire season. We solve it by shoveling the roof above the dam clear to the top.

Off Topic: Ice Dam

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