Home Improvement Hell - Ice Dam Recovery...

[Geoff]

I have a French drain around my foundation and a 6" PVC drainage pipe that runs across my neighbor's back yard. My gutter/drainpipe system feeds into PVC pipes next to the perforated pipes in the French drain system. The roof on my house is U-shaped with three sides ending up on a 10x10 flat roof. The gutter and drain pipe there are completely frozen up. I think that a de-icing cable that runs from the gutter down the drain pipe and to the concrete manhole in the back yard would fix the problem. I could also set up a matrix of de-icing cable on the flat roof and up the three pitched roof sections to get all of that to melt out so I don't need to shovel it. Once I have black roof exposed, it will all melt out fairly quickly in South Dartmouth. One 200 foot cable would likely suffice since the house is so tiny.

The whole roof is a big plastic bag. The EPDM rubber roof runs 3 feet up the pitched roof and has ice & water shield over that and up the valleys. The rest of the roof has a waterproof Grace TriFlex underlayment that's rated for 6 months of water-tight without roofing shingles. I have a big overhang so the water has no path into the house.

 

[billski]

I have no gutters and I get ice but no real ice dams. I have a few icicles coming out of the soffit vent but nothing inside.

It's a necessary evil We have an absolutely flat yard, and need to drain the roof water away from the house. We've had a couple bad floods, even with a french drain and sump.

 

[Puck it]

It's a necessary evil We have an absolutely flat yard, and need to drain the roof water away from the house. We've had a couple bad floods, even with a french drain and sump.

Sloping yard and no basement water problem. My neighbor to my right is a different story though. He gets all my water.

 

[SkiFanE]

Sloping yard and no basement water problem. My neighbor to my right is a different story though. He gets all my water.

I live at top of hill, highest point in town (a water tower in my 'hood). We have a french drain and except for when a kid left the hose running all night in front of the house, never any water...and seeing we are at a high point, makes sense. Our neighbor has a beautiful finished basement and it has been water damaged 2x... wtf? Don't get why they don't deal with it - our houses are all similar 1970-era construction. Don't get why insurance will just keep paying every few years.

Our last house did not have gutters - but these things (that we were told were 'european') that were like flat metal with slanted slats in them that hung where the gutter should be. So they dispersed the water from the roof so it didn't come in one stream down to the ground. It was a ranch, so not much vertical to fall, worked very well and never a problem with ice dams. Knock on wood no water in house - but it helps we have a garrison colonial, so I think the water may be going down/inside the walls til it reaches the outside above the first level - but nothing in our window sills like a few years ago. Crossing fingers...lots of melting today.

 

[Bostonian]

So a few updates...

The upstairs of our house has been pretty much dried out and the water mitigation contractors are beginning the downstairs as we speak. it's been quite a chaotic week here, with a brief asbestos scare, but progress is being had! Soon we will be getting new insulation, and blue board to put up. I am eager to get my contractor to start...