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Ice dams may well mean one (or both) of these things.

Too much heat in the attic.
Not enough roof overhang beyond the wall.

The first one is pretty easy to remediate: Soffit and ridge vents to pull cold air through the attic; good insulation between the living space & attic.

There are also multiple ways to improve the "water resistance" of the roof (i.e., installation of a water/ice barrier under the shingles, or metal roofing material instead of shingles at the overhangs) -- but these do treat the symptom, not the disease.

We had ice dam issues once at the MA house (fairly minor, fortunately). I talked about doing roof work with a hifi buddy who's a woodworker/contractor and he said rather brusquely - "that doesn't fix the problem. Do you have a pull-down stair for your attic?"

"Yes"

"Is it insulated?"

"No"

"Then you have a 2 x 3 foot [or more!] window from your heated house to the sky. You need to fix things like that first!"

To cut a long story short (MA had a state-funded program to do stuff like this, which was a terrific thing for us), we had some work done in the attic to improve insulation. One of the remediations: they built a cover for the pull-down out of foam boards. Well done and easily removed (from below) for attic access from the pull down (a couple of velcro straps that can be pulled down tight through a couple of metal loops).

We never had any more trouble after improving attic insulation.

Just though I'd mention this.

EDIT: If the pull-down thing is an issue for the OP, you can make a cover like the one I described, or just buy something like this.

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Owens-Corning-25-1-2-in-x-54-in-Attic-Stair-Insulator-II-AS2/100676399?cm_mmc=Shopping|THD|G|0|G-BASE-PLA-D22-Insulation|&gclid=CjwKEAiAlZDFBRCKncm67qihiHwSJABtoNIgVndcr2eP2a5xJgiEsEKJ46XdChcvE9qeVW1rgb2vahoCFIzw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

I put one of those in this house -- the pull-down here is insulated, but up here in the frozen white north, you cannot have too much insulation

Good point Mark, ice dams are certainly a possibility also. Have many here in Chicago who suffer that fate as well.

Usually poor ventilation in your attic is one of the root causes. You should have vents cut out in your overhangs on the roof. Make sure the insulation in the attic isn't covering those vents too.

Another, though you can't see now but in the spring take a look, is the backing of the gutter warps and if the shingles on the roof or tar paper doesn't go all the way into that gutter water will run behind it....soak the wood, get in the walls and create ice dams. Weather warms up, ice dams melt, and bingo.

As noted, remember water always takes the path of least resistance. So when dealing with water around foundations, specifically basements, you have to make sure the water flows away from the house and not build up.

All foundations crack over time, some will leak, some won't, depends on how well the drainage and landscape is situated. If it's a fairly new house still under builders warranty, I'd be screaming up and down. If it's an older house, look at the easier fixes already stated first, last thing you want to do is dig up the outside to install new drainage pipe and stone.

There are not but our primary routes of egress are on the gable side.

We probably should have 'em over the doors, though, out front.

I was dodgin' snow comin' off the roof Monday whilst digging out our beater Tacoma pickup on the parking pad behind the garage :

Beautiful pics as always DrH. Love to visit the snow, Love to ski, just can't live in it :'(

Marks got a beautiful place.

mhardy6647 wrote: »

You know youse guyses are welcome any time.
Of course, if you come now -- I may hand you a shovel.

Honda makes some sick snow blowers on tracks like a tank. Beast.

Nightfall wrote: »

mhardy6647 wrote: »

You know youse guyses are welcome any time.
Of course, if you come now -- I may hand you a shovel.

Honda makes some sick snow blowers on tracks like a tank. Beast.

I say, I say, I say -- whoa!






Well, a little secret. We pay a plow guy to plow the driveway and the parking pad : I/we usually shovel around the house & the paths to the bird feeders. When we have a real winter, I snowshoe out.

Another little secret. My son-in-law and I are tractor shoppin' -- we're planning to go halfsies on a fairly serious tractor (in the 40-50 hp neighborhood, 4WD) to share between their property and ours. They need one more than I, but I do have the western wasteland (where we'd had to clear the red pine stand that hadn't been well maintained) that needs work to remove invasives & try to get something good growin' on it.

I think the front-end loader would suffice -- or we can get a big ol' snowblower for it!

Further details as events warrant.

PS actually I do have our old snowblower from MA -- it is small but sincere. We'd given it to our son-in-law and daughter when they set up their first house in Keene. I'd bought a much larger one (used) after we moved up, but ended up swapping back our old one for it -- because our son-in-law's/daugther's place has much more stuff that needs to be cleared of snow.

@mhardy6647,

I use a John Deere 4400 Compact Utility Tractor (35 hp, 28 hp pto) with a commercial 60" snowblower to clear our driveway and "turnaround" in front of our house. The driveway is about 450' long and the "turnaround" area is around 50' x 70'. I have a mid-mount 60' mower with a leaf collector, a 72" front-end loader, a front blade, and a 55 gal. drum sprayer. It's great and essential to maintain our site (~38 A.)

Even with last night's snow fall (about 14" here on the NH seacoast), I cleared it all in about an hour.

When I purchased the tractor and implements, I looked at the Kubotas, and at that time I couldn't get a front-mounted snowblower. The wife of the Kubota dealer told my wife that when her husband returned from clearing snow with the rear-mounted snowblower, he was always covered in snow. That made my wife say we were going for the JD. That was over 15 years ago, many snow storms ago, and I'm really glad I got the front-end snowblower.

After buying stereo equipment, buying a tractor comes in as a close second for entertainment.

....and speaking of aircraft...

@mhardy6647,

The Kubota is definitely beefier than my JD.

Looks like a good machine.

Two other factors that proved to be important to me was the ease of installing and removing implements and the ease of service, as well as the clarity of service instructions. I do virtually all my own service and "seasonal" transitions.

I have mixed feelings about the JD's characteristics in both regards. For example: something as simple as draining and flushing the radiator was such a hassle because of the location of the petcock, that I finally jury-rigged my own specialty tool to loosen and tighten it. Before I did so, it took more time to loosen and tighten the petcock than it took for the remainder of the process.

Me and my JD 4400 on 19 February 2015 -- having already cleared a few few of snow!

How nice was it in Chicago today.....

It was so nice in Chicago today even the '57 came out for a little bit...

beautiful bel air. This is my ole mustang. Shes in pieces in the garage right now, I need to find the motivation to get the wiring and EFI done. Can;t wait to drive her again though