Ice Dam? (a.k.a. water coming from where it shouldn't)

[ArcticGabe]

Hi GJ brethren.

(ok this isn't specifically a garage question, but I'm sure one of you will know how to help)

We've had a crazy fall so far. 8+ inches of snow in the past few days, and now it's just above freezing and starting to thaw. Now I've got water coming off my roof in places it's never come from before and I can't figure it out. I already raked off the lower 5 ft of snow from the roof yesterday, but the gutters are solid ice, and minor ice covers the roof where it's been raked.

Please see the photo. There is a solid stream of water coming down from what looks like between the gutter and the fascia. Then directly behind that there is water dripping down from the soffit close to the house (directly above the frieze board). The soffit drip is splashing on the window and the sill.

As you can see, I unscrewed one of the soffit vents and felt around inside, but it is completely dry on the top side of the soffit. Because of this, I don't think it is ice dams under the shingles, but for the life of me, I can't figure out where this water is coming from.

No water appears to be coming inside the house. But I want to fix this before it does.

Ideas?

Thanks much.

 

[Bretny]

Yes thats the begning of an ice dam. Get the roof rake out sooner so the sun has a chance to get to the roofing. Usualy once the roof is exposed a bit it can melt off easy and you wont get any oce dams. Barring you also clean any valleys in the roof too.

 

[slowtwitch73]

I feel you pain. Often water comes down under the shingles but over the underlayment.. this talks to how/where the drip edge was installed in regards to the unerlayment and the gutters. If the gutters are against the drip edge, water can come down and out. I had a spot that did that.. just got new gutters this past summer and the guy said the proper way is for the back gutter edge to be tucked under the drip edge. More work, but it solved my drip. Of course water under the shingles is bad in and of itself.

That type of weather plays havoc on roofs and gutters in may ways. Valleys are also trouble depending on their aspect.

Maybe get de icer place to come out and steam your roof.. a growing industry.

 

[ford33]

You need to do a Google search on roof ice dams to understand the problem and how to fix it. There is plenty of information available.

Ice damming does not occur at the bottom of the eaves but where the warm attic ends and the eaves starts. The water then takes the path of least resistance to the lowest level.

Assuming you have an unfinished attic, go into the unfinished attic or open up more of the ceiling to find where the leak is starting. You need to ventilate the unfinished attic so that it is as cold in the attic as possible from the top to bottom. Also stop any warm indoor air infiltration into the attic by bathroom exhausts, holes from pipe exits or ceiling can light fixtures.

Your situation is not going to improve unless you actively look for the causes and apply a remedy now.

 

[slowtwitch73]

It does happen at the ends.. the water gets caught above it. often the roof sheathing will wick it up. Not uncommon for the bottom 2 ft of sheathing to have mold all around a house and the owners to have no clue about it.

 

[AirJunky]

We have a valley in the roof that has a tendency to dam up & creates an ice dam that is about 30' tall down the side of the house. Years ago I figured out how to take a pair of women's knee high nylons, filled with snowmelt, and lob it up on the roof just above that valley. I might have to do it 2 or 3 times over the winter to keep it working. But it keeps the rain gutter clear & ice dam from ever forming. And in the spring, I have women's nylons appearing in the driveway!
No clue how you'd have water coming from where your describing. Hope your able to figure it out. Maybe a combination of using the rake early & a pair of women's nylons filled with snowmelt would keep it moving correctly.

 

[juiced10]

When I bought my house it had a bad roof with the valley being particularly bad. I replaced it with a metal roof. That winter I got a bad ice dam. Ceiling was leaking and I made the mistake of poking it. Drywall fell and gallons of water came with it. I immediately jumped up on roof and not kidding the water was a foot deep! Axe chopping and I finally got it to drain. I decided to run that heat wire up the valley. I have it set to only come on when the temp is just above freezing. Never had another problem after. I do take it down in the spring and put up late fall.


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[zak77]

Chances are the snow is melting and the water has made a path under the ice at the eaves but since the gutter is full of ice it cant go in there so it's flowing behind the gutter and down the fascia. I would throw hands full of ice melt on the roof to help melt any ice that forms or you can try the pantyhose trick that AirJunky recommends.

 

[matt_i]

I'm going to wild-guess that the drip edge was put on after the underlayment rather than the other way around.

Water is running under shingle(s) and down the underlayment, but when it hits the bottom and should go over the drip edge it goes underneath and then runs out on the fascia trim.

Best practice is to put the drip edge on the plywood/osb and then put the ice+water stuck to the top of the drip edge. But I'm going to guess it was done out of the preferred order. Normally would never be noticed.

 

[ArcticGabe]

I got on a ladder and used a putty knife to gently pry the ice up off the shingles along the whole side of the house, in the valleys, and the mound of ice on top of the gutters. It came up real easy since it's above freezing so no force had to be used. Then I took off the downspout in the area and cleared all of the ice from it.

All of this seemed to help since the soffit drip has now mostly stopped, but there is still plenty of water dripping over the edge of the gutter. I figure this is better than before.

I checked out the attic insulation in the area, as the electricians ran the electrical feed to my new garage through that area. It was a little out of place, but not bad. There was still a clear path along the underside of the roof down to the soffit, so it was venting ok.

Sounds to me like the drip edge is not done right. Best I could figure is that water is getting behind the fascia trim then running on top of the aluminum soffit trim, and coming out around the J-channel along the top of the wall. The alum soffit trim covers a thin wood soffit material which was not wet on the top, and neither was the underside of the roof sheathing.

 

[jimindm]

We put a single story addition on the north side of our two story home several years ago. We actually had ice running down the side of the house. Water ran down but had no where to go, because the gutter was full of ice.

The next year I put in the roof heating cable. Just layed it in the bottom of the gutter, and ran it down the downspout. Have never had the issue since.

I would have no idea what to tell you about melting the ice you have in the gutter now. The heat cable would work on the ice, but you would have to keep it on there some how.

 

[ArcticGabe]

Strangely enough, the issues have been on the west side of the house. Not that it matters that much since we haven't seen much sun here in the past several days.

 

[theoldwizard1]

I have (luckily) one small section of gutter that catches all of the snow melt from a large portion of roof because of a valley. A couple of years ago I install heat wire in the gutter and up about 18"24" on the roof. I run it for about 24-48 hours after a big snow. No more worries.

 

[RPH]

Old ***** hose filled with ice melt and tied off as a sausage. Throw these up on the roof where it starts to dam up. This will melt the ice and create a drain for the fluid. A few strategically placed will keep the water drained. If you have a metal roof be careful what ice melt you use. Works great on shingles though.

Edit: further research states to use calcium chloride for metal roofs.