It's where the snow on your roof melts on a warm day, drips down to the edge of the roof, then freezes again, forming a huge ice mass right on the edge of the roof. When it gets big enough, it creates a literal dam, so that any water that melts behind it doesn't drip off the roof, it gets dammed up behind the ice mass. Typical asphalt shingles do a lousy job of keeping standing water from infiltrating. The result is water inside the house, often dripping down inside the exterior walls of a home, and dripping out through windows, discoloring drywall, ruining insulation, etc. Bad stuff. Google it, dude.
If you shovel all the snow off the roof, there's nothing to melt or drip inside the home.
4 comments:
You shovel a roof to help prevent ice dams!
what is a ice dam?
It's where the snow on your roof melts on a warm day, drips down to the edge of the roof, then freezes again, forming a huge ice mass right on the edge of the roof. When it gets big enough, it creates a literal dam, so that any water that melts behind it doesn't drip off the roof, it gets dammed up behind the ice mass. Typical asphalt shingles do a lousy job of keeping standing water from infiltrating. The result is water inside the house, often dripping down inside the exterior walls of a home, and dripping out through windows, discoloring drywall, ruining insulation, etc. Bad stuff. Google it, dude.
If you shovel all the snow off the roof, there's nothing to melt or drip inside the home.
I'm shoveling my roof as soon as I get home tonight, although not literally with a shovel.
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