The Chilling Truth About Icicles & Why Homeowners Should Care
Sure, those big icicles hanging from your roof look awfully beautiful but they’re also awfully ominous of a ridge dam (a ridge of ice along the edge of the roof). When heat escapes from the roof, it melts the snow up there. Then, when it gets cold again, that water freezes along the edges of your roof and if it happens enough times, it can build up into an ice dam. Before you panic, consider these six facts to keep your budget from freezing over this winter.
They Will Destroy Insulation
Water isn’t supposed to pool on your roof, ever. Once the ice dam is there and established and the warm air melts more snow, the water gets trapped behind the ice dam. Once it puddles, it can seep down through the roof and transform your functional insulation into a gross, wet mess.
They Will Cause Mold
As a result of gross, wet insulation, mold becomes a serious and probable next step. It’s nasty and really difficult to get rid of but it can be prevented! Good insulation should stop your roof from getting too warm and prevent water build up on a regular basis which eliminates the threat of mold in the first place. It’s all about finding a balance between insulation and ventilation. If you have a warm attic and this blog post is sounding all too familiar, you may have narrowed down your problem.
They Will Flood Your Walls
If you were lucky enough to catch the problem before it escalated past mold, consider yourself lucky! A really bad leak will continue right through the insulation to destroy walls, ceilings, flooring and basically anything it touches while also spreading the old problem even further. Want to avoid any future leaks? Make sure there’s never enough ice or snow on the roof to melt and create one.
They Will Rip Down Gutters & Shingles
If the name itself didn’t already give it away, ice dams weigh a ton and because of that, they can cause serious damage and stress to your home’s exterior. If you’ve invested in proper insulation and ventilation, you should never have to get to this point so we’re crossing our fingers for you. If you spot a damn forming, fill pantyhose with an ice-melt product and place it in all the spots on your roof that are prone to freezing as a short-term DIY hack.
They Will Cause Physical Harm
A small reminder that with a heavy weight, comes the potential to seriously harm something or someone near and dear to you. At any point, especially when temperatures fluctuate drastically, those icicles could come loose and destroy your car, make a dent in your landscaping or even worse, injure a pet or family member.
They Will Grow In Different Places
It isn’t rocket science to understand all the ways ice can damage your roof but depending on where it’s forming, it can damage other things like your gas meters, tree limbs, sheds etc.
Sometimes it can be tempting to kick back and relax as a home owner when temperatures plummet and the snow starts to fall, but try to make some time between your relaxing indoor activities to do a few laps around the house and make sure there’s no ice buildup that will cost you big time in the long run.
