The snow cover may look like a winter wonderland, but it can wreak havoc on your roof. It’s that time of the year where we have to be concerned about weather affecting not just our families, but our homes as well. Ice damming on your roof can cause considerable damage to the structure.

Mold and especially wood rot can be like unwelcome guests and affect the indoor air quality. Proper ventilation in the attic is essential to remove moisture and gases that build up and prevent mold growth. A properly insulated and sealed attic is key to preventing ice damming. Allowing warm air flow from the conditioned space (the living space) to come into contact with the underside of the roof deck is what you want to avoid.

A consistent covering of insulation being careful to not block the soffits by using baffles is the first step. Newer homes with the right amount of insulation can still have ice dams that not only cause leaks, but allow water to get behind the cladding system (what covers your outside walls).

Stopping air from leaking into the attic is the second. Penetrations from wiring, plumbing, ductwork and light fixtures are some of the avenues that warm moist air can take to leak into the attic space from the heated part of the house. This will heat the underside of the deck and cause snow to melt and start the process of ice damming.

When water from ice damming gets behind the vinyl siding or your stucco it can get to the sheathing that holds your siding and cause damage. This can result in stucco repairs and necessitate stucco remediation that is costly.

Craig Camel

Advanced Mold Diagnostics

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 20th, 2011 at 2:45 am and is filed under Attic Ventilation & Mold. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.