Need to Protect Against Ice Dams? New Hope Company Says Don’t Wait

A Minnesota winter can wreak havoc on the rooftops of homes without proper ventilation and insulation, and local roofing companies say now is the time to worry about the potential for ice dams.

“The older the home, the more you’re going to experience it,” said Naomi Dukatz, co-owner of Entire Exteriors in New Hope. “I’m sure we’ve all heard the story of the hundred year old house that got renovated, and when they went to tear open the attic they found newspaper for insulation in there. So that is a factor. We didn’t realize, as contractors, how proper insulation, ventilation affected a home until the last 20 years or so.”

When homes don’t have proper ventilation and insulation, it can cause heat loss through your roof. That heat loss can melt the snow that’s collected on a rooftop and create an ice dam at the end of your roof line.

Icicles signal the presence of ice dams

One way to know if you have ice dams is if you see icicles hanging from your gutter.

When an ice dam forms, the water can pool and go inside your house, causing severe damage to interior walls and ceilings. Experts say now would be a good time to reach out to a professional for help.

“Whether that’s a contractor or your local energy company, have them come out and do an inspection or audit of the attic system; and verify that you do have the proper insulation, and that you also have the proper ventilation and air sealing in the home,” Dukatz said. “So your attic needs to have an intake and an outtake for the roof system to ventilate and breathe properly, and if you don’t have that you’re going to create a trap for the heat to sit and create that loss through the roof line.”

Homeowners can also prevent ice dams by using roof rakes to remove the snow from the edge of a roof line, but experts say to be careful not to scrape all the way down to your shingles because that could cause granule loss to your singles and create the potential for leaking during summer rainfalls.

New Hope