Our Ice Dam - Frustrating, Expensive, and a bit of a Mystery

Posted by: Allison Friedman // Rate It Green Admin

If you've got an ice dam this winter, you're not alone.  I heard a funny noise late at night in our kitchen, and though I was sure it would be nothing, I went to investigate.  As I got closer, I recognized the slow drip sound of water inside our house.  As people who try really hard to responsibly maintain our home, it's always deeply disappointing when something goes wrong, like the house kind of let us down in a way.  We've been in this 1964-built house for over 20 years now, so we've also completed so many projects and it seems like we've replaced everything in the last couple of years especially - including a huge HVAC project where we added heat pumps, two additional ERVs, a remote hood fan and make up air in the kitchen, and more dedicated humidity equipment, new appliances, and even a large septic and drainage project.  It seemed time for a break and for things to go well for a bit! 

I will likely update when we learn more, but for now I thought I'd share where we are and what's going on, and I wanted to see if people out there have advice or opinions.  I have ideas on what I wish to do, but I might be over-engineering solutions in my head.  The thing is, when I did that previously, ice dams did not come back in those locations.  And that's the goal. 

We did have the roof raked, which is one reason this was frustrating- it's not like we declined to remove the heavier-than-normal snow.  I am hearing that we should have asked that this small roof area be fully raked and that this situation might not have been so bad.  Well, it may not be fun to hear this after we had damage, but maybe sharing can help someone else.  We were away when the heavy snowfall occurred, but I will surely ask for full raking next time.  One thing I’ll say on that though is that in my mind, if the vulnerability exists, then simply not experiencing the damage “this time” is like winning a battle and not the war. I don’t want to have a ticking explosive device and to think our space and our stuff are secure, only to find we had damage later only because I didn’t know or didn’t do something the right way now.     

So, what happened?  I’ve heard two or three major themes so far. First of all, this is an East facing and indented roof area with a lot of trees around, so it’s not getting a lot of sun and warmth.  Once formed, ice can remain there for quite a while.  Second, we’ve got 4 skylights.  They did not leak and look great, but as older less efficient openings, there’s some thought that the thermal energy they conducted might have melted the water on top of the glass.  And then that water refroze below the skylights and in and around our gutters.  It’s possible there could be vulnerabilities in the flashing around the skylights, but we actually had those redone to prevent leaks.  It doesn’t help that this area has lots of corners and angles and is sort of like a bowl, with a lot of roof square footage above.  

One thing people have said frequently is that water will find a way. So even a perfectly finely built wall or roof has perforations from nails even where if freezing, melting, and refreezing water pushes up against these areas with enough pressure, something is going to get through.  It feels like we had a leak bigger than a pinhole though.  But that is how ice dams seem to work with shingles, - melted water freezes back up, pushes under the shingles, and melts through. But it is my opinion and experience that a solid water resistant barrier doesn’t actually let water through - it has to sit on top.  

For now, we’ve called our insurance company on this one.  We’ve taken on a lot of issues and projects on our own, but we thought with roofing issues and water and some flooring, this is where insurance makes sense. The roof raking company came back, awesome handymen came by and placed come calcium chloride on the roof, roofers came and took even more ice off the roof, I had a carpenter visit today, a disaster mitigation company is coming tomorrow to check moisture levels and what we can to to dry this all out, as is a flooring repair person. Wow! Who am I forgetting? Ah yes, furniture refinishing for the unfortunate table which absorbed a heck of a lot of water.   

So, what do I wish to do?

• I want to put ice and water shield on this roof and on the three walls that surround it. Not just 1-6 feet - wall to wall and the whole roof.  We did this once before 20 feet up, and that area of roof has not had a problem since.  It was a small amount more above the 6 or tn feet recommended at the time, and the roofers were a little surprised I chose the additional coverage, but why stop short of a durable, quality solution when you have reason to believe it will work?  

• There’s nothing wrong with the skylights, but… I would be ok to replace them as they’re 30+ years old.  It would be a waste to keep them and have the seals fail or something.  We’ve been advised to use heat tape on this area, and I am not against that. 

• One person thought heat tape only on the second floor roof would solve the problem as there was a good amount of ice up there.  But not only did I see “suspicious” sheets of ice on the first floor pushing out of the gutter into the shingles and building in the corner against the wall, we had a crazy situation after the calcium chloride was placed around the gutters and skylights.  A little over ten minutes later, water went from dripping to running through the nail holes of the drapes we’d have to remove. That was crazy.  It was also informative as it meant there was definitely an issue between the gutter and the skylights.  So if we’re using heat tape, the first floor would be my first pick, but I am not against the second floor as well. 

• The second floor ice is a little confusing as we added spray foam insulation in our attic and all areas we worked on in 2025 and 2006.  We took an older, leakier house and made it tighter!  Which is one reason we also added and then expanded mechanical ventilation. But as this was an existing home we renovated in 2005/6, we certainly can look into whether there are gaps at the bottom of the eaves?  

 

Please feel invited to share any thoughts!  What am I missing? Where do you think the problem might be, and what are your suggested solutions?  I'll plan to share the final decisions and outcomes - and hopefully it will not rain futher inside our home.  

Also, plesse share your ice dam and other home damage, repair and maintenance frustrations, and wins here or in other posts!  We can all learn from each other- and help each other as a member community -and beyond.  



The East-facing back roof. This area was apparently expanded with the skylights before we moved in, back in 1995.  
 

You can see the solid glacier strip of ice here. I am not sure why the slylights were not cleared, but this was a major storm and there was so much snow.  We were not home, and perhaps the people who came this time didn't even konw we had skylights?


Another view of the ice built up long the gutters. 


A closer view of the corner and gutter ice.



It looks like some water is pooling on the skylights in this image. But the skylights had no visible leakage and the water is only at the lower edges. It might still have come from th skylights, but we see shingles that look distrubed at the roof edges as well, where a lot of the ice was. 



You can see how the water traveled along the ridge. When we removed the drapes, water flowed slowly our of the screw holes in the ceiling. fter the calcium chloride was applied to the roof above, water almost immediately gushed out for some tme. And we had wondred if we really had to remove the drapes!



The table had apparently been absorbing water, maybe saving the floor and other items from worse damage.  I hope we'll be able to refinish it. 


There's hope that the floors will improve as they dry out and not need too much repair. The floor damage is a bit hard to see on film. Fortunately, it's not too large an area, but it did wick some.