Warmer temps and now my roof is leaking

nick13

My roof never leaks when it rains. It only leaks when the winter ice starts to thaw. It's leaking near the gutters(I think). I guess it could be leaking somewhere else and making it's way down to the walls.

Anyway, I asssume the gutters have filled with ice and it has pushed up under the first few rows of shingles. When it warms up the ice melts and leaks into the house. What can I do to fix this problem for the long term? The roof is fairly new, but I'm not against pulling some of it up if need be. Any help would be appreciated.

redline

How much insulation do you have in the attic?
Do you have ridge/soffit vents?

nick13

I don't really know how much insulation is alot or a little. It's a very small attic space. I do not have soffit vents , but do have box vents on the back side of the house.

A small addition was built onto the backside of the house before I bought it. Since I've had the house(2 winters now) that room has leaked like I was explaining. Only when the temps rose though. Now the front living room is doing the same thing.

nick13

would pulling off the fisrt 5-6 courses of shingles and putting an ice & water shield down do the trick?

redline

What part of the country do you live in?

nick13

Cleveland, Ohio

redline

Your attic needs around R-49 of insulation. That should be around 16 inches of fiberglass.

redline

Do you remove the snow from the roof when you receive large amounts of snow?

nick13

so you're saying that more insulation in the attic will stop the ice from melting into the house.? am i wrong in think that my gutters are flling with ice and it's getting under the shigles. they do fill with ice and end up with enormous icecicles hanging from them

nick13

i think the roof is about 6 years old. the front has a steep slope to it and the addition is not as steep but it's not flat. it's a cape cod style house

nick13

i do not remove snow from the roof. with the wind and steepness of the roof there never is a ton of it that stays on the roof. i have alwasys assumed since it's an old house that it was NOT very efficient and that warm air was melting some of the snow on the roof. just like everyone else int the area

redline

Usually what occurs is the the attic is under-insulated and the heat rises up and melts the snow on the roof. The melted snow - now water travels down the roof until it reaches the over hang where it is cooler. The cooler section freezes the water and creates an ice dam. More snow melts up higher on the roof and when it reaches the ice dam it cannot flow over the ice dam so it works its way up under the shingles and then leaks down thru the roof.

If you have the proper amount of insulation then the heat will not melt the snow on the roof as fast. Then if you have a soffit vent and a roof vent this will circulate the air and keep the under side of the roof from melting the snow.


Plus the added insulation will reduce your heat bills.

Do not block the soffit vents with insulation.

It would also help if you did have ice/water shield installed.

Do you know if ice/water shield is under the shingles?

nick13

or, i've read about the low voltage heating coils you can run in your gutters to melt the snow/ice before it becomes a problem

nick13

i don't actually know if there is ice/water shield under the shingles. i was assuming there wasn't because it's leaking.

let's say that there is ice/water shield. why would it be leaking if it was already there.

Thank you very much for your help with this. I'm afraid this is one area that I'm not very well informed

redline

Yes, you can use heat cable to melt the ice.

It is better to stop the snow from melting in the first place.

Check in your attic and measure how much insulation that you have.

Is your boiler/furnace running most of the time?

You may also notice that newer house have less ice forming on the roof/gutters then the older hosue. Usually a newer house has better insulation and roof venting.

Is the house drafty?