The Untold Victim of Snowstorms: Your Home – Part 2

March 18, 2010

It’s finally beginning to look a lot like spring around here, and as more people get outside to deal with the fallout from the February blizzards, we’ve been getting questions about preparing your home to prevent ice dams in winters to come. To answer some of your most pressing concerns, we recently caught up with Long Fence and Home Product Specialist Richard Ramos to seek his advice for withstanding even the worst winter conditions.

Q: What are some of the biggest complaints you’ve heard from homeowners this winter?

A: As snow melted on people’s roofs, ice dams starting forming along open gutters, allowing water to sneak under the shingles of the roof and into the interior walls of many homes. The extra weight of the frozen melt also created an outside mess, tearing off gutters, pulling down fascia boards and creating thousands of dollars of damage.

Q: Who is at the biggest risk for ice dams?

A: Poorly insulated attics are the primary cause of ice dams. When hot air escapes from the house, it melts the snow on the roof, causing leaks and other exterior damage. People with insulated exterior siding need to be particularly careful to prevent heat loss from the attic, because high performance siding dramatically reduces air loss through the outside walls, forcing it to exit from the attic instead. To prevent ice dams, people should take a systematic approach to reducing heat loss, installing a radiant heat barrier in the attic at the same time as they install their siding.

Q: Can ice dams rip the siding from a home?

A: No matter how well the siding is installed, repeated exposure to ice dams, melted water and snow can eventually rip siding from the outside of a home. Fascia and soffit treatments are especially vulnerable and expensive to repair due to their height and the labor intensive nature of installation. It didn’t get to progress that much this year, but if you don’t stop the water it is going to start rotting your house and it’s going to get progressively worse.

Q: What happens if water from an ice dam gets behind the siding?

A: If water gets behind the siding, it could foster the growth of mildew and black mold or begin rotting the walls to which the siding materials are secured. Insurance is going to cover an incident, but if someone is not maintaining their home (if their gutters are clogged or their home has an unmitigated ice dam, etc.) an insurance company has the right to deny a claim or offer a reduced payout based on neglect.

Q: What can people do to prepare their homes for winters to come? 

A: With the warm weather, some people start to get complacent, thinking that they’ve escaped the problem. But if we have a severe winter next year and there is more ice damming, it could get to the point where it starts creating a lot of damage to their homes. We’ve been trying to educate people that a gutter jacket system, used in conjunction with a radiant barrier in the attic, is a long-term solution.  This is an opportunity for people to get out in front of the problem rather than reacting to the damage afterwards.