During the colder months, we Canadians know to expect one thing (and lots of it): SNOW. And while snow may be fun to play in with the family, it is certainly not fun to deal with when it turns into an ice dam on your roof. Thankfully, there are some pretty sure-fire ways to prevent ice dams and therefore, damages to your roof. Here’s what you can do to keep your roof safe from ice dams this winter.

Know How To Identify An Ice Dam

An ice dam is a large quantity of ice that gathers along the lower edge of one’s roof. If an ice dam is particularly large, it can compromise the structure of your roof by being too heavy. It can also cause damage by causing meltwater (water that has melted due to warmer temperature) to settle on the shingles and potentially flow into your ceiling and ruin your ceiling and wall surfaces. This type of damage can be extremely costly to repair, which is why you should never ignore an ice dam on your roof, even if it is a small one.

What Causes Ice Dams

Ice dams are formed when the temperature on your roof fluxes between warm and cold too quickly. If your roof has snow on it and that snow melts due to warmer temperatures, but it freezes quickly before it could flow off your roof through the eavestroughs.

To stop ice dams, you can do the following:

• Ventilation under the roof deck: this will keep your attic space colder, matching outside temperatures to prevent your roof from warming up and potentially causing meltwater
• Insulation in the ceiling: this will prevent warm air from rising up into the attic space
• Block heat sources: doing this will help cut down high temperatures that cause meltwater
• Use an electric heat cable: this will help prevent melting water from cooling enough to freeze and form an ice dam

No matter the cause of your ice dams, there is an appropriate solution out there. Turnbull Roofing can help you find the best one for you and we’ll help you out every step of the way. So, if ice dams are getting you down, call us today: 905-579-ROOF (Oshawa) 905-686-ROOF (Ajax).