Roof ice dams can be a brutal fact of life in cold, snowy regions. For homeowners living in such places, making ice dam prevention is a crucial factor to consider when roofing your house. The significance of this issue is even greater since ice dam prevention materials are what roofing companies provide during cold climates. Therefore, it’s prudent and natural to be wary of add-ons provided by companies soliciting your particular business. So, what is ice dam prevention and do you need it?

Impact of Ice Dams

The ice dams’ effect is often not noticed until much later. Maybe in a warm season, you might start noticing the formation of mould spots on your ceiling. Perhaps your ceiling might have huge, dark-rimmed water spots. A smell of mould and mildew on your attic or your attic insulation may be mouldy or damp.

Generally, these problems areas will often be confined to your house’s perimeter. More often than not, a water spot on the ceiling will be found within 6 feet of an external wall. After melting of water behind the ice dam, it had all the time to seep below the shingles. Once that backed-up water seeps between the shingles, it passes into the attic, permeates via insulation, and then soaks ceiling joists and drywall. In case you have a wood shake, asphalt, or composite shingles, the problem will exacerbate since they do not hold backwater.

When You Should Install Ice Dam Prevention

Every time a roofing company is enlisted to install ice dam protection, they usually run a rubber-type strip flashing around the roof perimeter before they can lay down the shingles. The flashing material is built of high-density cross-laminated polythene that generally measures about 75 feet long and 36 inches wide. The width extends from the roof’s edge up to the ridge. More often than not, the length is long enough such that it can cover a lot of houses.

Ice dam protection doesn’t prevent the actual ice dam. It, instead, helps in limiting or preventing the seepage from the ice dams that passes below your shingles from reaching and ruining the wood deck under the shingles. In climates experiencing freeze-thaw cycles, ice dam protection is highly recommended. The materials must be added during the time of roofing since they can’t be added retroactively.

At MGT Insulation, fortunately, you can rest assured that you have a cool roof that is limited to ice accumulation. We have the tools to identify these openings and the expertise to seal them.