Of all the forces of nature that will force you to take up a costly roofing repair during the winter, ice dams are among the worst. The professionals at Ray St. Clair Roofing know that when it comes to your roofing installation and gutter maintenance, every homeowner should be doing all they can to avoid ice dams. Why? Eliminating these terrors is the key to having a roof that lasts a lifetime!

If you’ve ever wondered why ice dams form on your roof, it’s because the heat from the indoors is rising up to your attic and melting any snow on your roof. So, why doesn’t the melted snow just run off into your gutters? Because as the snow melts from the heat, it begins to freeze again when it reaches the eave of the roof, which remains below freezing. If it does, you will have a dreaded ice dam.

Aside from having icicles hanging from your roof, ice dams prevent melted snow from safely being discarded through your gutter system. And this is exactly when roof disasters occur. Water held back from your gutter system pools on your roof and seeps into your attic and from there can segue into your structure, interior walls and ceilings.

Luckily, there are affordable roofing options to help prevent the buildup of ice dams. If your roof has adequate insulation, this will reduce the rapidity with which snow melts in the first place. Poor insulation is the number one culprit for most ice dam troubles, so making sure your roof is properly insulated is paramount.

Installing an appropriate ice guard underlayment will furbish your roof with maximum waterproofing protection. But, for a top-of-the-line remedy against ice dams, you can’t find any better than heating coils, which will provide your roof with a heated drain path design to prevent ice buildup from taking place.

Regardless of your situation, some ice buildup is a feature of winter weather, but you can dramatically decrease the risks of racking up costly roof repairs by calling Ray St. Clair Roofing for any of these remedies. To reach one of their professionals, call (513) 874-1234 or visit them online for more information.