Ice Dam Issue

Hello, everyone!

Recently i was driving through the city and found great example of poor ventilation. And what can happened to this roof during winter months in Alberta.

Example of poor ventilation

Looks pretty scary, doesn’t it? Especially keeping in mind it is a restaurant with constant human traffic. Just think if one of these ice-creams will land on someone’s head.. Brrrr.. Without any inspection i can tell that there is a huge problem with ventilation. In other words – it does not exist. Here is diagram why Ice Dams like this are happening all over the city.Diagram Ice Dams

In ideal situation, your soffit should suck in air and circulate it through the attic. But in real life it is not happening due to multiple factors. Let’s name just a few: – Soffits are blocked with insulation – Not enough or not efficient exhaust air vents on top of the roof – Mistakes during engineering/architectural stage – and many, many more.

Now, what (on top of safety) this issue brings into the table: – Destroyed roofing area on the edge – Possible leaks and micro-leaks on the edges – Destroyed roofing decking on the edge(around 20%!!!!! of the houses have this issue) – Ice can tear off eavethroughs – another thousands $$$ in repairs.

So what can you do to avoid this problem? The best solution is having roofing installed over strappingBuoyancy Forces

This will give enough air circulation and also work as additional insulation for your house (somewhere around R5 value). Also it is a good practice to install snow stops (snow rails, snow blocks, etc) ABOVE freezing line. It means at the line where the wall meets the soffit. Roughly 2 – 3 feet from the edge of the roof deck. Bottom line – if you see curled and damaged shingles on the edge of your roof – most likely you have this issue. And your house is getting destroyed every time it sees snow. Give us a call – we know how to fix it forever.