Saturday, February 16, 2008

Evil Ice Dam

I get home last night and there are latters, ropes, shovels, picks, extension rods and all the rest lying in front of the garage. What the heck is going on!? This couldn't be good and it wasn't.

Our roof is flooding our house. There is a good foot high of solid ice dam on top of our house right now which is pooling the water on the roof allowing it to go only one place.......down the wall through the ceiling into our extra bedroom and living room. The paint is bubbled and the carpet is slowing getting destroyed.

As for all that equipment?? That would be my canyoneering husbands doing. He and our neighbor had decided that he is going to go up on the roof with ropes and all to chip the ice away which he has no problem with because it is a fun adventure right?! Yeah, I don't think so. The house isn't a freaking jungle gym. Let's just say that when I got home I put the lid on that idea and made a late night call to the disaster flood crew who happened to be working on a house in the valley here that had a ceiling cave in on them from the same thing. An ice dam. It is a TON of weight on the roof. Next call at 11 pm was to the insurance agency because things are getting worse by the hour.


I have a feeling that this is just the beginning of all the messes that will be happening around here with all the snow we have. Clean up crews are everywhere already taking care of business left and right. And the word is that once you get the snow and ice of the roof and onto the ground then in the spring your basement floods. Oh goodness!

2 comments:

flahute said...

Kathy/Chris ... I'm really sorry to read about the troubles you're having right now. This kind of stuff really sucks.

I wish there was something I could do to help.

Going forward, heat tape might be in order ... especially on any north-facing rooflines ... it will help melt the snow and ice (and if you run a loop down the gutters and drains, keep the meltwater flowing), to keep it from building up too much on the roof.

For obvious reasons, your electric bill will be higher in the winter, but it should help save this kind of aggravation in the future.

KATHY SHERWIN said...

Great idea!

Can't wait to see what the Spring melt off brings now. Oh joy.