Ice dam

The house I bought in August had been occupied the winter or maybe 2 before I moved in by a renter . The renter kept the house fairly cool less than 60 and used an eden pure type electric heater he’d move to whatever room he was in. Heated like that the insulation must have kept up .
The house was not heated in the winter for a decade previous.


Today I discovered water dripping in my house . It’s coming from above a window.
Soo I’m thinking shovel entire roof. Chisel and salt ice dam taking care not to damage shingles ( plan has been new steel roof summer of 2020 )
When I put the steel roof on , I guess I’ll add more insulation.

Any tips tricks or suggestions on how to deal with the ice dam now ? I know I’ll need to keep up with the snow from now on

I do not want to have to shovel my roof every time it snows next year. What should I do this summer to fix it right .

Thanks fhc


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Make sure there are baffles in the eaves, then seal the attic well. Finally, in MN, insulate to R-49 or more. There's a definite point of diminishing returns with insulation, but that would be pretty good.
Until then, shovel the roof anytime there's snow.
You could start the sealing and insulating now as well.

 

Ice dams typically have little if anything to do with your roofing and even insulation is only part of the issue. What is the temperature of your attic compared to the outside? It should be cold up there, very cold. My experience is that several common things cause heat build up in the attic that results in ice damming.
1)Lack of insulation & Damaged insulation
2)Airflow from the heated space into the attic from;
Bathroom exhaust fans not vented outside, same with kitchen exhaust
Old style, non IC-Rated (vented) recessed ceiling lights
Unsealed chase around the chimney
Poorly sealed attic hatch
Pipe and wire chases through interior walls
3)HVAC systems in attic spaces that leak like a screen door in a submarine,
4)Complete lack of or really poor attic venting.

Keep the heat from getting up there in the first place and vent out the heat that does before it accumulates and melts that snow. You shouldn't ever need to rake snow off your roof.

 

Thank you.
1.) per my pre purchase inspection I bought. There is 16 to 24” of cellulose insulation.

2.) I have no can lights kitchen or bathroom fans. I doubt the electrical runs were foamed. Probably not anything special around my chimney, and it’s in line with where the water has breached

3.) no hvac

4.) I’ll bet I don’t have sufficient ventilation

Guess I need to get in there and have a look


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Looking at that picture again, I don't notice any icicles hanging outside that window. You sure you have an ice dam? Maybe take a look at the rubber flashing seals around the pipe vents going through the roof.

 

Unfortunately I’m quite certain.


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You hit all the highlights we're dealing with here. It's a ranch home with way less than adequate insulation up above. I've been doing the roof raking thing all 7 years... ... I may have finally convinced my bride that we have to spend the and have the house insulated up above. We had the chimlee re-lined last summer, so... it's time this spring or maybe sooner.

 

That is not strictly true. If the snow load gets too much, there is the very real possibility of the roof caving in. Get a bunch of snow up there, then add a n inch or two of rain/sleet, and that is a recipe for disaster (which we see every year here in NH despite the warnings by the weather service).

If you put a metal roof on (as you say is planned), the snow should slide off once the metal warms up from the sun. Won't argue against more insulation / tightening up / air flow being fixed at the same time though.

I know my metal roof has the ice & water shield for half way up the roof line.

You do want to be aware of where the snow will dump but I deliberately did not have them install any snow bars because of my specific situation (didn't do it on last house either). I find it hilarious that some places put on a metal roof, then have the bars all across the ENTIRE roof. The point of metal roofs, at least to me, is to get the snow to dump - which the bars prevent.

 

We had a light snow a couple days ago, then a slight warmup, which caused some melt then icicles and a very small ice dam.

 

I do not know if this will help you or not but we had some ice problems at the township building where the day job is and there was no budget left so they got a roof heating grid I think at lowes to carry them over untill they re roof and it seems to work well stopped the ice from forming it just plugs in when it is going to snow or ice

 

There are heat tape type products that you could use until you can get whatever the problem is fixed in the spring.