As warmer weather is hitting the prairies, some areas are seeing an increase in heat and sunshine leading to snow melting off of roofs.
While that may seem like a good thing, the reality is that these conditions can lead to ice dams.
What happens is when the attic space of a home becomes warm, that can melt the snow on the roof, causing the water between the snow and shingles to freeze once it trickles down to the eaves-trough.
Once enough of that ice accumulates it will become large enough to damage the shingles since the water runs beneath them during the day and expands when it freezes.
Winmar Property Restoration Specialists Estimator Peter Jacques has a few tips to help prevent ice dams in your home.
"Ideally there's a few things that you want to do inside your house to keep your attic around the same temperature that it is outside. You want to make sure there's no heat loss from the heated space inside your house into the attic," said Jacques, "You want to try to make sure you have a proper amount of insulation in your attic, you want your attic to have good airflow, good circulation through the attic, you want to try to keep the snow buildup off the roof."
"You can remove the snow with a snow rake or heated cable and you also want to keep your eaves-trough and gutters clear to make sure the water has somewhere to go," said Jacques.
He also stresses the potential danger that the ice dam could have for a passerby, as those ice dams can become heavy and could hurt someone.
But another place those ice dams could end up hurting is in your wallet, as Jacques says a repair can cost a hefty chunk of change.
"It's hard to say, but you can be in the tens of thousands, dealing with the interior. Basically, if an ice dam forms in the attic and the water comes into your attic it tends to affect the ceiling and the exterior walls," said Jacques, "So a lot of the time we're opening up the walls and a good portion of the ceiling to deal with the water that's in there."
Jacques also cautions anyone with an ice dam to not go onto the roof to remove it and not try to break it up with something sharp as that's likely to break shingles.