Evidence of ice damming
Ice dams are a great example of a common problem in home performance, which boils down to a lack of understanding of building science. If you think that ice dams happen because your roof was installed poorly, or because of ice-filled gutters, it makes sense to replace gutters or re-do a roof. And there are a lot of temporary solutions for ice dams floating around out there, from removing gutters to using a roof rake to dislodge ice to creative ways to melt the ice or remove the snow from your roof. Unfortunately, none of these fixes actually addresses the reasons that ice dams form - they’re about as useful as band-aids on a severed limb.
In the simplest terms, ice dams happen when your roof is unevenly heated. For ice dams to occur, snow must be present on the roof, part of the roof must be below freezing, and part must be above freezing. The snow melts where the roof is above freezing, runs down to where the roof is below freezing, and freezes. Continued melting and freezing can cause water to pool in the gutters or behind an ice dam anywhere on the roof. Eventually, those pools can penetrate the building envelope, and show up as leaks on your walls or ceilings.
Stop that heat escaping!
There’s one real solution to ice dams that trumps them all. It prevents the possibility of more ice dams forming in the future. It saves energy. It’s very low-maintenance. It isn’t even that expensive. However, it’s also not intuitive, until you understand that ice damming is caused primarily by heat loss through the attic.
What is that real solution, you ask? Insulate and air-seal your attic, which prevents the attic from heating up, which prevents the snow on your roof from melting in the first place.
This isn’t just good building science: it’s good sense.
what ddo you do after you have insullated and it still leaks 80 yr old woman