How to Identify Ice Dams on Your Roof

Disguised as spectacular sculptures, ice dams can be hard to spot on your home if you don’t know what you’re looking at. Here’s how to recognize them so they can be removed before destroying your roof.

Glistening gutters

It hasn’t rained in weeks (or months), and yet your gutters are full to the brim. In fact, they look like Dr. Freeze–completely encased in ice and ready to do some lethal damage. This means the bottom-most snow touching your roof has melted and run down to the gutters, where colder temps trapped it in place again.

Impressive icicles

A hallmark of winter and extremely fun to fence with. But the presence of long icicles on the edge of your roof means snow is continuing to melt and run down to the tip of these “stalactites.” Water weighs 8lbs a gallon when liquid, so the increased weight of ice will bear down on your gutters and eaves, weakening them over time.

Corner cascades

If you see a sheet of ice suspended from an inward corner of your roof (especially over a window or door), RUN to the phone and call us for ice dam removal. These dense sheets can break off at any time, collapsing into your windows and shattering glass or crashing onto your head.

When is it time to call the professionals?

It’s best to call and have ice dams removed as soon as you see a thick, transparent crust begin to form at the edge of your roof underneath the snow. Yes, the icicles and cascades are breath-taking. Even more breathtaking is the cost of repairing the roof if you let ice dam damage build up for too long.We’ll help you spot 5 signs of ice dam damage in next week’s blog post. Until then, contact us to get an estimate or book an appointment for ice dam removal service.