Northern Virginia is certainly getting a chilly start to the beginning of winter, with frost and ice being a common sight in the morning. It is evident that a cold winter is upon us and it’s our responsibility as homeowners to make sure that our entire roofing system is protected from conditions that happen when temperatures are consistently below freezing. Today’s topic is something we have touched on but haven’t assigned a blog of its own yet: ice dams.
What Are Ice Dams?
Ice dams happen after a winter storm that causes enough accumulation for snow to stay on your roof. They are ridges of ice that form at the edge of your roof. Its presence prevents melting snow from being mitigated properly.
Though ice dams may look pretty, they can tear off your gutters, loosen shingles, or let water to back up behind the ice dam and leak into your home. If the damage is excessive, then your floors and paint can also get require repairs or replacements.
The conditions for ice dams to form are multi-layered.
- There is snow on the roof.
- Your higher part of your roof is warmer than 32 degrees, but lower parts are below 32 degrees.
Ice dams pose a great danger to your roof because it can cause sneaky damage to other parts of your home. Water can seep into the smallest cracks in the exterior roof covering and enter your home, especially the attic. From the attic, if the leak is ongoing, water can seep into the exterior walls or through your ceiling.
This doesn’t just damage your home’s interior beauty, but it can cause mold to grow and wood to soften and rot from water damage. Mold mitigation and rot aren’t cheap to fix either. Instead of facing a health risk and huge expense, being proactive and upgrading your roofing ventilation and insulation can prevent ice dams from happening this winter.
How Do You Prevent Ice Dams?
No matter how great your gutter system is, it can’t do all the heavy lifting if ice is forming around it. You need to keep your roof cold so that the snow doesn’t melt and cause a dam to form in and around your gutters.
Thankfully, at Noble Roofing, we’re familiar with roofing, which includes ventilation. If you want us to check out your vents to make sure that they are working correctly, we can conduct a roof inspection for you.
We also highly advise you to get seamless gutters for their outstanding performance which reduces the chance of your house experiencing water damage and ice dams because there is a smaller chance of water leakage. It also helps greatly to have high quality gutters that send away water quickly instead of letting it accumulate in them.
So, if you’re interested in upgrading your ventilation system or switching out your outdated gutters for seamless ones, give us a call!
Roof Inspections in Centreville, VA
In our next post, which will be after the new year, we will discuss safe practices for taking down your holiday lights. Check it out and let us know if you have any questions.
Noble Roofing is the expert you can turn to for residential roofing and storm damage services. For more than two decades, we’ve developed a reputation for sheer quality and dependability. We serve Centreville, VA, and other nearby areas. Give us a call today at (703) 429-0840 and experience our top-notch service for yourself.