"I would like to ask your thoughts on the "pros and cons" on the use of the self-adhesive, 3 ft wide membrane (ice dam) used on the edge of the roof line. I believe that this would replace the felt paper, under the 1st rows of asphalt shingle. We have a sloped roof, but I do not know how ste...
When there is morning frost or light snow on a roof, you can learn a lot about a heat losses from the house and how to eliminate ice dams and icicles.
What causes problems
Melting the bottom of a snow pack or melting off all snow at the crown of the roof sends water down under the snow to ...
Gerry is reshingling an open beam low sloped roof that has always given him problems with ice dams. He wants to know if it is worth it to tear up the first four feet, install air sheets and replace the boards?
Actually it is a great idea to perfect the over-the-wall section of the roof space any...
John in Kleinburg, Ontario asked if he should remove insulation from around his pot lights. Actually it is necessary to take the question much further.
HEAT FROM TRADITIONAL POT LIGHTS
Pot lights, or recessed lighting fixtures as they are properly called, do create a lot of heat and it is tr...
One of the most successful, but most expensive ways to keep leaves out of rain gutters is to place a solid shield over the top.
Using the principle of surface tension of water, the water flows over the shield and wraps around its outside curve. That curve extends out over the rain gutter itsel...
In my experience, heating ducts that run through attics cause serious problems in snow country. Don't let a contractor talk you into it.
In warm climates it is common practice to run heating and air conditioning ducting through attic spaces simply because it is easy to do. Unfortunately this ...
For most houses, never -- let nature handle it. The reason for that is that most roofs are built to handle the snow that is piled up on it, removing snow is dangerous to you and often the process of snow removal causes more damage to the roof than the snow would. Those were the conclusions tha...
When placing de-icing cables on a roof which has leaf guards on the rain gutters the layout of the cables need to be modified from traditional installations because the small holes in the leaf guards freeze over very quickly.
Best practice for standard cable installation is to have the cables l...
Often furnace heating and air conditioning duct work is run though an attic and then back down into the house. Personally I think that this is a really bad idea unless there is absolutely no alternative route. Why?
First, most duct work is not sealed where it goes through the ceiling, so a lot o...
"Why do some houses have ice dams on the roof and others do not?"
The overview is below -- for details go to Ice Dams -- for contractors who will really solve this problem, scroll to the bottom of this article.
What causes ice dams and ice cicles?
Ice dams develop when snow is on the roof, ...
