Watch out for ice dams!!

[Powerstroke]

I thought I'd toss this friendly reminder out there for those who havent' cleaned off their roofs yet. I'ma new homeowner and although I've tried to keep up with the house maintenance this winter, I let things go this past week and a half because I've been too busy plowing and hauling snow. So today I went around back to shovel off the egress window covers in case of a fire and there is a WICKED ice dam forming off my garage. There wasn't one there 2 weeks ago, but with all this snow and the melting (my garage is heated) there was ~6" of ice on top of the gutter in the corner.

I spent 2hrs shoveling snow and hammering ice off of the roof. Hopefully this warm up will melt the dam without causing any damage.

Take a walk around the house just for the heck of it. You might find something.

[The_Duckslayer]

Pulled the snow off of mine and then went to St Peter and pulled the snow off mom's. Let me tell ya, I was glad to get back to work Monday just to rest up from that ordeal! Now there is not so much of an ice dam threat any more and there is one heck of a lot less weight on the roof's as well! Take care and N Joy the Hunt././Jimbo

[polarsusd81]

I got up and pulled the snow off my roof last night. There was a bunch on the back of the house, and not much up front, I left the stuff up front alone, but knocked down nearly 2 feet above my bedroom. Had a nice ice dam about 5" thick right at the edge, broke it up and got it down. Hopefully with the temps rising in the next couple days, the rest will come down alright.

[Bobby Bass]

With the 20" of snow we got here I am so happy that we also had 50mph winds as I as clean as a whistle on my multi level roofs. For those of you who have to clean snow off your roofs I'll be there in spirit!

[jegerjack]

Also be careful on how you remove the snow… You can actually do more damage trying to remove the snow if you go rough shot over your roof… Cracked shingles or worse broken ones are just a few things that can happen (not including broken bones)… Hopefully this sun will do away with most of the snow... Good luck…

[Johnny_Namakan]

Keep in mind guys, if you are getting ice dams there is an underlying issue with your heat escaping. In the case of the heated garage, you probably don't have a cold air space between your heated garage and the roof, i.e. attic. Heat is escaping and melting the snow and then reaches your overhang and freezes. I have an old house and get ice dams all year long. I know it is due to the poor insulation in my ceiling and with no overhang, I have no soffit vents. If your house was properly built, ice dams should not occur, period. Or, your house may have been built properly, but does not have enough ventilation. Make sure your soffit vents, ridge vents and gable vents are allowing air flow into your cold airspace. If the snow can't melt, then you won't get the ice dams.

[Powerstroke]

You are correct that there is no airspace on the portion of my garage that formed an ice dam. It was an addition off the back of the garage that id not change the pitch of the roof. Instead they added a new portion of roof and insulated underneith similar to haveing a vaulted ceiling in a room.

Now that I know this I can prepare for it in the future.

I cleared all the snow from the roof and chipped away several inches of ice including a trough inside the gutters. I did all of this with a framing hammer so not to damage the roof. The ice continued to melt, the gutters have opened up and the roo fis now clear. No more ice dam.