Our guest blog post from Burke Emergency Restoration will help you learn how to clear ice dams, keeping your home dry and mold-free.
It’s been a relatively snow-free winter so far, but anyone who lives in New England knows old man winter still has some tricks up his sleeve that can wreak havoc on your home. Namely, ice dams.
Ice dams often occur after a heavy snowfall and consecutive days of freezing temperatures. Warm air from inside your home leaks into the attic and warms the underside of the roof. This causes snow and ice on the roof to melt. The melted water drains along the roof under the snow until it reaches the cold overhang. Since the overhang is usually the same temperature as the outdoors, the melted water will refreeze upon reaching it and form an ice dam. This can result in serious damage to your roof, water leaks inside your home (evident by a water spot on the ceiling under the roof damage), and above all, mold.
So what should a homeowner do? There are several immediate steps you can take to clear ice dams:
Short term action:
- Remove snow from the roof using a “roof rake” or a push broom. Caution must be used as this may damage roofing materials, not to mention the safety risks involved.
- In an emergency situation where water is flowing into your house, making channels through the ice dam allows the water behind the dam to drain off the roof. You can do this by hosing the ice dam with tap water on a warm day. Work upward from the lower edge of the dam. This is only a temporary solution and again, serious caution should be taken before getting up on a roof given the inherent safety risks.
Long-term action:
- Increase the ceiling/roof insulation to cut down on heat loss by conduction. In narrow spaces, use insulation products with high R-value (6-7) per inch.
- Make the ceiling air tight preventing warm air from flowing from the house into the attic space.
- Call a professional property mitigation and remediation company like Burke Emergency Restoration to remediate the problem before it worsens.
Many homeowners mistakenly let ice dams remain on the roof until melting occurs. This allows the water time to penetrate roof shingles and insulation and can result in the growth of mold. The illustration to the right depicts what can result from a failure to clear ice dams.
If your situation requires professional assistance, a property mitigation and remediation company like Burke Emergency Restoration will assess the damage, thoroughly dry the structure and when appropriate, will test for the presence of mold. If mold is found, the company will begin the process of remediation by removing it from all affected surfaces using one of several techniques such as dry ice blasting and encapsulation.
Left untreated, mold can cause a host of health problems including upper respiratory infections, chronic fatigue, allergies and even disease. Considering the many forms of mold, it is not advisable to treat it with bleach, as this may result in the proliferation of mold spores into the air which will only exacerbate the situation.
Whether your home has ice dams, mold, or moisture problems, call a professional mitigation and remediation company like Burke Emergency Restoration to ensure a healthy environment for you and your family.
Burke Emergency Restoration is located at 850 E. Industrial Park Drive, Manchester NH and can be reached 24 hours a day, 7 days a week at 855-716-2875.