3 Ways You Can Prevent Winter Ice Dam 
What Is Ice Dam? Ice dam isn’t a natural winter occurrence but rather a signal that your attic is improperly vented, inadequately insulated--or both. For an ice dam to form, warm air must rise through your home and escape through your attic, causing the snow on your roof to melt and run down and refreeze at the eaves. When this happens day after day, a dam of ice forms, causing water to back up under the roof and leak into the attic and along exterior walls, damaging wood, plaster and drywall in the process.
1. Insulate Your Attic: Most people assume that if they have adequate insulation in their attic, they’ve done all they can to keep warm air inside and maximize their energy savings. Radiant barrier insulation provides the best protection against heat loss. American Metal Roofs installs HeatBarrier XP, a reflective insulation product that is blown-in over existing insulation. HeatBarrier XP reflects radiant heat back down into living spaces, effectively recycling heat and reducing radiant heat loss. Because of its unique design, it remains effective even if the top layer becomes covered in dust. 2. Ventilate Your Attic Properly: Good insulation, air-tight ceilings, low humidity levels in your home and proper ventilation usually will keep a roof cold enough to prevent ice dams from forming. Start by making sure heat does not escape around chimneys, pipes, skylights, attic accesses and vents. Then address any ventilation issues your current roof might have. American Metal Roofs manufactures and installs Hi-Flow Ridge Vents, which move large volumes of air from soffit vents up and out through the ridge. This removes excess heat and moisture from the attic, so snow does not melt and cause ice damming. Our high-performance ridge vents also super dry the insulation, increasing the insulation’s ability to block heat, keeping it inside your living spaces. 3. Go With Metal Roofing: While no roofing material is completely impervious to the dangers of ice dam, a roof that allows snow to simply slide off during warmer days, or when the winter sun shines, is less likely to accumulate dams of ice. One of the benefits of durable all-metal roofing is its design. Snow really slides right off, eliminating the need to ever shovel snow off the roof. Together with an unmatched lifespan of 125 years or more, a truly appealing look and year-round energy savings, metal roofing is the gold standard in the roofing industry. Learn more about American Metal Roofs.
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