Ice dams

[Deleted]

I don't know if Vera has written about this yet or not, but she has felt the brunt of it all.

For those of us in a northern climate ice dams are a part of life. This year they are really bad. The winter has been much much warmer than usual. Lately we have had a lot of freezing and thawing. All of this makes for prime conditions.

For those of you who don't know what they are; ice damns are big sheets or blocks of ice that build up on the over hanging edge of your roof. Generally they form from snow that melts and then when it slides down the roof line and hits the over hang it is colder and tend to stop and melts and freezes and you get this build up of ice at the gutter line. The ice can and will get up under the shingles and push them up and you will then get water dripping down into the house in areas.

This is what Vera has had to put up with the past few weeks Poor thing. My son got up there and shoveled off snow one day. Then we had a big snow storm on Tuesday, 6 " in an hour and it was wet and heavy. Wednesday I was gone all day and Vera told me she got up on the roof, tied the horse lunge line around her waist and then the foot of my bed and went out my window She shoveled and pried all the ice and snow off the roof. Hopefully the leakes have stopped for her now and she can live dry and warm until spring hits.

There is plenty of info on the web on ice dams for those of you who are interested.

[Kathy]

Oh my, I just had this picture of Vera up on the roof with that horse line around her waist!

Ice dams are so destructive; I had them up in WI and the results was a soft floor in the bathroom. The water was running down between the walls and following an oak beam soaking the bathroom floor.

There was a big cedar tree by the house that was probably small when they added the bathroom. Well it wasn't small anymore and the snow and melting snow from the tree ended up right on the bathroom roof.
4' & 5' icicles weren't uncommon. Beautiful but destructive.

Tell Vera to be careful!

[dirty]

d*mn ice. vera on the roof , where was the camera?

[Deleted]

I was in Austria about this time a few years ago and noticed that they had all the sidewalks blocked off so that pedestrians had to walk out in the street.

Curiosity finally got the better of me (not surprisingly) and when I asked about it, they showed me the big icicles hanging down from the tops of the buildings. If and when they do come down, it could kill a person.

I sure am glad to be taking care of crocuses and not icicles!

/VM

[auntieemu]

Wow. Hope everything is ok now! And hope Vera doesn't have to go back on the roof again (but we want photos if she does.....)

[Deleted]

I wasn't home when she did this, darn that woman, she is stuborn. I want pictures too! So far so good on the ice dams. But we are expecting a storm begining tomorrow.