Some things I have noticed:

1) 9 out of 10 homes that have bad ice dams, and active leaks, have some sort of gutter guard.

Personally I have never liked these. They all reduce the opening of the top of the gutter in some way shape or form. There is no substitute for cleaning your gutters a few times a year.

2) Ice and Water shield isn’t a sure thing.

Thats right, I have been to homes with water coming in, and the homeowner says “but my roofing contractor used Ice and Water”.

If I&W isn’t installed right water can, and will get backed up under it.

3)Ventilation, ventilation, ventilation.

Every roofing contractor in the state of Connecticut it seems likes to up sell ridge vent. But no one wants to  install soffit vent.

Ridge vent, you see is an exhaust vent. It lets moisture, and excess heat exhaust from your attic, but to work properly it needs an intake vent at the eave line. The intake must be at least 50% of the net square footage of total ventilation. Most roofing contractors in Connecticut just want to sell ridge vent, because they just don’t know how important a proper attic ventilation system is.

Not only does it help prevent ice dams, by keeping the roof deck at a uniform temperature, but it also helps reduce heating and cooling bills.

4) Insulation.

Attic insulation is very important. Most every home I have been to with problems has had minimum insulation in the attic. Your attic should have 12 inches of insulation in it. (R 38). If not it will benefit you in many ways to get an insulation contractor out to add to your attic.

Hopefully this winter will start to retreat soon before more damage is done.  But if you are having any roofing, siding or any remodeling done this spring or summer, don’t forget about the worse case scenario of winter 2010-2011.

A comprehensive maintenance plan that covers every aspect of your home from structural components, to mechanical systems, and everything in between can yield a great return on your investment.

Studies have shown that preventive maintenance is much more cost-effective than reactive maintenance.  With a proper home maintenance program in place you are identifying, and dealing with problems when they are small and inexpensive to repair. You are greatly reducing catastrophic failure that can be costly, and dangerous. And you are keeping everything in working order.

From the Jones Lang LaSalle study Determining the Economic Value of Preventive Maintenance:“The results of the analysis were overwhelmingly positive for performing preventive maintenance (PM). The analysis shows that an investment in preventive maintenance produces a huge return on the investment.” One sample analysis in the study resulted in a Return On Investment of 545%. This greater than $5 return for every $1 spent on Preventive Maintenance is not unusual. “Maintaining all the equipment produces the significant returns identified by the analysis and offers a powerful argument for the value of preventive maintenance and the dramatic impact preventive maintenance can have on real estate.”

From C. Idhammar, President of IDCON, a reliability and maintenance management consulting firm, commenting on preventive maintenance programs: “In the last year we have verified the Return on Investment to be between 5 to 10 times the initial investment, and after that, 10 to 30 times the cost to run the program.”

An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  Benjamin Franklin

I’d like to talk a little about home maintenance. We all maintain our cars, we have the oil changed, we get tune-ups, we rotate the tires.

We do this so our vehicles will last.  But do we put this type of preventive maintenance mentality into our homes? The answer is simple for most Americans. No.

Time and time again I start a renovation, and find serious problems that could have been easily avoided if the root cause was addressed early on.

Most people have the furnace cleaned, and maybe clean their gutters, and that is the extent of the yearly home maintenance.

But your home is a very complex thing. It is exposed to the elements, and the wear and tear of our families.

The American Society of Home Inspectors advises homeowners to budget .75% of a home’s value for annual maintenance for homes less than 10 years old. That jumps to 1.5% for homes in their second decade and 3.0% for homes in the third decade.

This may sound like a lot of money, but what if something went unnoticed for years? Want to see expensive?

An example: A client of mine called, and told me he was at his mother’s house, and noticed a lot of rust on the electrical meter. I had my electrician meet me over there.

Her electric meter was leaking. Water was getting in around the main power line, and following it right into the breaker box.

When we went to the basement,and opened the breaker panel we were stunned. Every breaker in the panel was rusted open. This means that if she had a short the breaker would not trip. The wire would heat up, and fire would most likely have of occurred.

Two thousand dollars to repair. Had it been caught early on about fifteen bucks.

Please take this maintenance survey to help us better serve you.

http://polldaddy.com/s/12CDCD919BF391A7

They can be caused by several factors:

1) Poor attic ventilation. When your roof deck warms up, and the snow begins to melt the ice dams will start. You want your roof deck as close to the outside temp as possible. However, even proper ventilated roofs can fall victim to ice dams. A warm sunny day after a heavy snow, can warm up your roof, and melting will begin. As the water runs down to the edge of the roof, and as the sun starts to set, re freezing occurs. This will re freezing will create a small ice ridge on the edge of the roof.

The next day it happens again, the ridge becomes larger, and so on , and so forth until an ice dam several inches high forms, and the water running down the roof from the melted snow has no where to go, except in!

2) Poor design. Sometimes it’s just poor design, the roof was built in such a way as to funnel a large amount of water through a small exit point.

3) Mother nature. A few years ago ( I believe it was Christmas eve) we had a “perfect storm” for ice damming. We received several inches of wet snow followed by warmer temps, and heavy rain.  This scenario is tough. All that water running down the roof mixing with the snow. At night the temps drop, and ice dam.

What to do?

If you have ice dams, the first thing to do is remove them. You must get the water flowing again. I am not recommending that any one climb up a ladder in ice and snow. Give us, or another professional a call, and have the ice dam cleared before the roof begins leaking causing rot and mold in your walls and attic.

After the ice is removed we can look for the cause, and implement a plan to eradicate it.