Do you currently have icicles hanging from your roof? If so, then you probably also have ice dams. An ice dam is a ridge of ice that forms at the edge of your roof and prevents the melting snow from draining off. The water that collects behind the ice dam can leak into your home and cause damage to the ceiling, walls, and insulation; in other words, it’s bad news.
Let’s talk about how you can prevent ice dams and remove them if you have them.
Aside from environmental factors, poor attic insulation, lack of adequate attic ventilation, and warm-air leaks in your attic can cause the roof to heat up from below and begin to melt the snow. As the snow melts into water and trickles down the roof, it refreezes as the temperatures fall below freezing or as it reaches a colder area of the roof, like an overhang. As the freeze and thaw cycle continues, the ice builds up and becomes thicker and thicker, creating an ice wall, otherwise known as an ice dam. As more snow melts and makes its way down the roof, that water builds up behind the ice dam instead of draining off the roof. This causes a problem, not only because it creates more ice, but as that ice thaws and freezes it can begin to work its way under the shingles of your roof and create water leaks in your home, quickly causing damage to ceilings, walls, and insulation.
It’s possible that if you wait until warmer weather that the ice dams will slowly melt and run off of your roof. Unfortunately, it often does not work out that way and there is no way to know how much your roof can take. More often than not in the “wait and see” scenario, you will come home to a pool of water that has leaked into your home. At that point, your only course of action is to call someone to remove your ice dams -fast- and pay for the necessary repairs to your home.
There is no one policy that is “needed” for an ice dam removal company. A lot of ice dam removal companies do not carry the right insurance coverage and don’t particularly care that you aren’t covered if something goes wrong. An honest, professional ice dam removal company will carry General Liability insurance and possibly an active Worker’s Compensation policy. The ice dam removal company should have its ice dam related company name on all of its insurance policies. Many of these companies do different kinds of work in the summer than they do in the winter so their business name for ice dam removal may be different than their regular company name. Be sure to work with a legitimate and ensured business as ice dam removal can be dangerous; or feel free to connect with our team so we can point you in the right direction. One way to be sure that you’re working with the right team is to ask for proof of workers comp insurance; legit organizations will be able to provide that for you.
If you have icicles, don’t wait and see what happens, begin the snow and ice dam removal process today. Connect with Green Clean to help with ice dam removal and minimize any damage it could cause to your home or business.
-Green Clean Team
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