As snow piles up all that weight equates to structural stress especially for buildings with flat roofs.
Snow and ice buildup on roof.
This condition must be monitored with extreme caution.
When heat comes out of your roof if can cause snow to melt too quickly causing heavier layers of ice when the water refreezes.
Finally ice accumulates along the eaves forming a dam.
The following procedure may be used as a guideline for responding to roof overload conditions due to extreme snow and ice buildup conditions.
This scenario is often the result of a warm attic.
If your home has a roof with a substantial pitch ice dams and clogged gutters can still prevent snow from sliding off.
Place this vertically on your roof near the edge so it will melt a section of snow and ice creating an area where the water can leak off.
Icicles or ice buildup.
In this case the snow absorbs the rain water and loads can approach the weight of water 62 4 pounds per cubic foot or 5 2 pounds per inch of depth.
When temperatures change over the course of the day it might happen than the snow will melt and refreeze forming an ice layer on the roof.
Snow melting systems take the form of heated wires that clip to shingles and the edge of your roof.
Next snow melts on the warm roof and then freezes on the cold eaves.
The water trickles down between the layer of snow and the shingles until it reaches the eave of the roof which stays cold because it extends beyond the side of the house.
Now that you know how ice dams form here s a quick and easy way to prevent them.
When excessive heat builds up the snow on the roof melts.
Properly insulating the attic is another way to prevent or reduce the risk of snow and ice collapsing a roof.
Gently toss the tied off pantyhose onto the edge of your roof to begin melting the snow.
Then plug the system into a nearby outlet to melt away the snow.
Ice dams and icicles form when the snow melts runs down your roof and refreezes near the edge.
Meltwater from the warm roof backs up behind it flows under the shingles and into the house.
Purchase sidewalk salt also called calcium chloride from your local hardware or big box store.
Not only will this save you money on your heating bill but it will also allow any snow and ice build up on your roof to melt and slough off naturally as the outside conditions warm up.
Run the heating elements back and forth in a zigzag above the gutters.
As you already know ice has a substantial density and causes a lot of stress on the structure.
As meltwater runs off it freezes near the edges since the last 6 to 18 inches of your roof is often.
Heavy loads of wet snow can eventually lead to shingle damage stress on load bearing walls and even roof collapse.
An ice dam forms when the roof over the attic gets warm enough to melt the underside of the layer of snow on the roof.
Warm air to leak into your attic.
This only occurs when part of your roof warms to above 32 degrees f warm enough to melt the snow while the roof edge remains below freezing.
The most severe condition occurs when rain falls on a roof system already loaded by snow.
Visually inspect the roof system to.
Clip a snow melting system to your roof to resist ice formation.
