Just a bit of snow to worry about in the winter

The area that the cabin is in averages a ton of snow every winter. With that snow comes increased weight on the roof as well as freeze/thaw cycles that can destroy a lot of things. We found a few things that caused ice dams, roof damage, leaks, leaks, and more leaks, which over time then caused wood rot and decay.

As we learned as we took things apart, there are many factors in play to help prevent ice dams from occurring and if any one of them fail, you may be in trouble.

  1. Insulation is good. Be sure you have the proper amount of insulation and vapor barriers separating your warm space from your cold space. The cabin had blown in insulation in the attic which may have been only 6-12 inches deep in some areas and was non existent in others. This caused warm air from the living spaces to easily get into the attic, causing bad things to happen.
  2. Ventilation counts. Without ridge venting and with the turbine vents buried in snow and an odd gable vent configuration, the ventilation and air flow in the attic was not ideal. This meant that warm air couldn’t naturally escape. The gable vents were really not overly helpful for any ventilation as their “partner” vents for cross flow of air were not in place. Also, the lack of real soffit vents (or soffits for that matter) didn’t help with ventilation.
  3. Mind the gutters. Some areas had gutters and some didn’t. It didn’t matter as the gutters trapped water, re-froze, and then caused issues. The lack of insulation in the non-gutter areas made it tough to keep the ice at bay. Clean gutters would be good as would industrial or heated gutter guards.
  4. Keep it clean. When we first purchased the cabin, the entire roof was covered in pine needles, pinecones, pine debris, and more pine needles. Shingles couldn’t breathe and the valleys were full of debris which led to water not being able to drain properly.
  5. Zinc strips work. Seeing as though the cabin was overgrown with trees when we first purchased it, very little sunlight got through to the roof. That is great for keeping it cool in summer, but not so great if you wanted shingles and the roof to dry out. Zinc strips were already in place in most areas to keep algae and moss away. It was very obvious which sections did not have these strips as the “growth” was everywhere.
  6. Flashing, crickets, and proper seals help. We needed to do some emergency flashing repair before winter to seal up areas around masonry chimneys. When we re-roof, we will also be constructing a cricket (fancy roofing term for a small water diversion piece) behind the large fireplace chimney so that water can naturally flow away from the stonework and not just splash into the flashing and caulking.
  7. Ice melt cables suck. These cables were installed on one side of the roof. You could tell they were on when we used them, but they melted about 2 inches of snow on each side of the cable and not much else. In fact, they probably did more harm than good. For the future state, we are using the Edge Melt system which combines heated cables with aluminum panels to keep edges and valleys clear.
  8. Ice and Water Membrane is key. The “right” membrane is key to apply for at least the lower 9 feet of roof and 3 feet up from each valley. This will help to keep anything from penetrating below the shingles. Grace Ice & Water Shield is the stuff to use. Expensive as hell, yes. Difficult to apply on hot days, yes. Do roofers and builders swear by it, yes. This stuff is the toughest stuff out there and probably could be used for many things, but the roofers and builders here swear by it. Grace has become the new Kleenex when talking about ice and water shielding around here…”We’re going to roll out Grace on the lower 9 ft of roof…Grace? she passed away 20 years ago…”

So, how are we solving for the ice dam festival that the cabin hosted each winter? Well, we are hitting on all of the high points above.

  • Better venting with ridge vents on all three ridges will be put in.
  • Gable end vents will be installed on both sides now to allow air to flow across, in, and up.
  • We are removing the turbine vents to have less openings in the roof and with the ridge and gable end vents, won’t need them
  • We are removing two unused chimneys to reduce the need for flashing maintenance
  • We are adding the cricket to the masonry chimney
  • More insulation (like 18-20″ more) will be blown into the attic and we will ensure that it is in every nook and cranny
  • Gutters with heated gutter guards and the Edge Melt system will be put in to help with the lower edges of the roof. The gutters will also be draining into piping trenched around the cabin to move water away from the structure and foundation.
  • Grace ice and water underlayment will be used on the lower 9 ft and in all valleys.
  • Woven underlayment will be used on the upper parts of the roof. Much better and more durable than paper/felt underlayment.
  • We are using Landmark Pro shingles which have some additional thickness to them as well as a self-sealing nailing strip. The big things with shingles we learned is the heavier is better, and be sure they are handled when its warm out and as little as possible to avoid bending and cracking them.
  • We are moving the electrical service from overheard to underground. That is both good from an electrical outage standpoint, but also gets rid of the pipe going through the roof today with the main service wires coming in.

So, a lot of things to think about when it comes to ice dam prevention, roofing, and related things. We can only hope that the 3 foot long icicles are a thing of the past with the improvements coming soon.