ice dams/leaking roofs/HELP!!!!!

[mtemm]

we woke up this morning and our entire back landing is leaking. well, a good portion of it is. I am ill. we were able to get out on that roof and completely clear the snow off of it, and hammered away at the ice dam that was formed to try to get some of it away...we didn't get much, but got some. calls in to several professionals, but haven't heard back yet (am guessing they are all pretty busy up here right now)

the ceiling was dripping away and parts feel pretty saturated and we are freaking out. drilled a hole on advice of a friend and a lot of water streamed out, now down to a drip drip drip, so we are hoping that helps.

any other suggestions?

sigh. I'm tired of being a grown up.

 

[shortbun]

I don't know what to tell you to do now but offering a hug. We are pretty diligent about keeping snow/ice dams off our roof. Luckily, DH is not the least bit afraid of heights. Good luck.

 

[golfgal]

Do not chip away the ice, that will damage your roof. One thing that you can do is get some old nylons and put ice melt in them and lay them on the ice dam, moving as necessary. You should be able to do this from a ladder-put ice melt in one leg and leave the other leg hanging down so you can grab it. This will melt the ice without damaging your roof. Do not just throw the ice melt on the roof tough because you don't want it on there for too long.

Professionals have steam machines that melt the ice if you can get one to call you back.

Ice dams are covered under your homeowner's insurance so if there is any major damage, call your insurance company.

 

[TIGGER'SFRIEND]

I feel for you--we have delt with this in the past and have had significant damage from it--make sure you call your insurance company and have them assess any damage--water inside the walls can cause mold and damage wood so make sure that is addressed--we just did some work in our home and the previous ice dam leaks caused damage to our structural support beam, which was scary to think of what could have happened (damage was from repeated ice dam problems over the years)--our roof was replaced several years ago and they put in an ice shield-has worked so far.
Considering the pattern of your winter weather you may need to consider ice shields as I'm not sure if insurance will cover repeated claims. Good luck!!

 

[marlynnp]

You can spread ice melt (calcium chloride) directly on the roof - it will not damage it.

Using it in hose or socks allows it to create a channel for addition water to flow down - so you don't create more ice. If you do this in order to have the proper affect you need to lay them in the direction of the slope and allow them to overhang the edge about 6".

Don't try to pry the ice off the roof but if you are able to clear ice from the gutter without affecting the roof ice do so. That will give the roof ice room to move from melting.

 

[marlynnp]

Can you access the area above the ceiling? If there is insulation wet up there you want to get that out. If you can't access the area I would cut out a section of the drywall where it is the wettest and remove it that way.

 

[mtemm]

thanks everybody!!! I really appreciate all the words of advice. Its been a very scary and frustrating day for us.

we just realized we have access in our garage to the ceiling that is affected, but need to wait till tomorrow before we can crawl up there and have a look from the inside. should give us an interesting perspective, and will let us know if we have insulation that needs to be dealt with. also gives a good way to remove it if we have to! thanks for pointing that one out, I hadn't even thought of that for some reason.

very good to know homeowners should help if needed! and we have tried both the ice melt in the pantyhose (who knew I had a pair stashed in the back of my drawer? I can't remember the last time I wore them!) as well as sprinkling it directly on. will not chip away at any more, since I keep reading about how damaging that can be.

one of the people I called is coming tomorrow to rake our top roof. he can definitely do the front of our roof, and is going to try to do the rear of it as well, but its a lot higher (due to the way my house is situated) so he wasn't able to say for certain until he gets here. fingers crossed! I can't even see up there at all so I don't know what is going on there, but I do know I am going to feel a whole lot better if he can get it all cleaned off, especially before we get this next storm on wednesday!!!

am going to try to go to sleep and try not to fret about it spreading into the rest of my house. if we can keep it contained to where it is, it is the ideal situation, even if it is a bad situation. In other words, I realize it can be a lot worse!

 

[golfgal]

Just a tip for the future, you can buy a roof rake and if you keep the bottom foot or so of roof clear of snow, it cuts down on the ice dams. It is generally something you can do from the ground but it sounds like your house is like our house and the back of the house is 3 stories from the ground where the front is 2 stories from the ground.

 

[mtemm]

yep, we can rake our lower roof, but can't come close to our upper roof at all. we will DEFINITELY be raking our lower roof with each storm now (that's where the leak is).

its just really crazy this year. we have more snow than normal for us, but the real problem is that we haven't had a break in the temps....no melt between storms. this weekend we got a little bit of melting going on, so hoping between that and the raking the guy came out and did and the work we did, we will be in okay shape for the storms coming up this week.

is it spring yet?

lol.

my landing smells so bad. not exactly sure what is causing the odor. guess we will be calling our insurance company tomorrow and seeing what we need to do from hereon out. praying it doesn't raise our rates and that it is worth it in the end!

 

[golfgal]

yep, we can rake our lower roof, but can't come close to our upper roof at all. we will DEFINITELY be raking our lower roof with each storm now (that's where the leak is).

its just really crazy this year. we have more snow than normal for us, but the real problem is that we haven't had a break in the temps....no melt between storms. this weekend we got a little bit of melting going on, so hoping between that and the raking the guy came out and did and the work we did, we will be in okay shape for the storms coming up this week.

is it spring yet?

lol.

my landing smells so bad. not exactly sure what is causing the odor. guess we will be calling our insurance company tomorrow and seeing what we need to do from hereon out. praying it doesn't raise our rates and that it is worth it in the end!

Comprehensive claim, can't "raise your rates" but you could lose a claim free discount causing your premium to increase for a couple years.

 

[LindaG4458]

For future reference if the problem persists:

We used to have severe ice dam problems when we lived in MA. We finally installed electric heating cables (designed for the purpose) in an up-and-down V pattern along the edge of the roof. They were controlled with a light switch inside the house. It takes practice knowing when to run them but it totally solved our water-dripping-inside-the-picture-window situation. The same set of cables worked for us about 28 years.

 

[pittsburghmarc]

For future reference if the problem persists:

We used to have severe ice dam problems when we lived in MA. We finally installed electric heating cables (designed for the purpose) in an up-and-down V pattern along the edge of the roof. They were controlled with a light switch inside the house. It takes practice knowing when to run them but it totally solved our water-dripping-inside-the-picture-window situation. The same set of cables worked for us about 28 years.

We finally did the same this year. Had dealt with the problem and finally had enough.

Ran the heating cables up the downspout, through the gutter, then along the edge of the roof. Ours has an automatic thermostat. Comes on when the weather drops below 34 degrees.

So far - so good.