It's perfectly adorable to have white frosting icicles hanging from the roofline when making a gingerbread house. But when it comes to icicles hanging off your actual roof, they can be unsightly, dangerous, and potentially damaging to your roof and gutters, and can even cause leaks that could damage ceilings, walls, insulation, and more. So, how can you solve the winter icicle problem? How do you prevent icicles from forming on your roof?

First of all, it's good to understand how these icicles form. They form when snow on the roof melts, collects, and then freezes again in the gutters. The snow melts because heat rises from the inside of your home, and warms the roof. However, the areas of your roof over the eaves remain cold, which causes the melting snow to freeze. As this ice accumulates, it forms ice dams which prevent melting snow from being able to drain off the roof. The dam grows as more water runs from the roof and freezes, creating ridges of ice that encourages icicles to form.

These icicles, that look sparkly and lovely in sunlight, could be hiding some dark secrets underneath. You see, when this melting snow reaches the dam of ice in the gutters of your home, the water is kept liquid by the warmth of the roof. Eventually, the water finds cracks in the roof covering and seeps into the attic, where it could damage the ceilings and interior walls.

Heat cable is an excellent way to prevent these ice dams from forming on your roof. The heat cable creates a good amount of warmth that keeps the snow near the gutters melted and draining properly. If you'd like to learn more, give Any Hour Services a call and one of our licensed electricians can come out and explain whether heat cable is a good idea for your home.

Author: Amber Smith-Johnson
Copyright © 2018 by Any Hour Services

Sep 24th 2018

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