Jim Rooney On The Level

Q. It seems I got into a bit of trouble with a bunch of people with something I wrote in this column last week. I was warning about a stripe of scam artists that cruise through neighborhoods offering both goods and services at rock bottom prices that turn out to be hoaxes costing more to repair than having had whatever it was done properly in the first place. My exact words were these malefactors “will target seniors because seniors tend to be more trusting of people than the rest of us”. Oops. The unkindest rejoinder I heard was my picture made me look like Santa’s dad. True enough-- I am counted as a senior, I must admit.

I teach a class at Edgewater Senior Center about twice a year called “Basic Home Repair’ which I’ve done for at least the last 10 years and I can tell you the most important issue for those folks is how to get work done on their homes without getting cheated. It’s a fun class for me and it runs once a week for about six weeks. The next class starts January 11 2011. If you’re old enough, come join us. My great aunt Edna, mugged on her way to the grocery store at about age 94 (you can’t make this up), was going to sue the newspaper who reported this crime referring to her as “elderly”. And driver’s licenses and birth certificates aside, I’ve had to come up with a working definition of “senior citizen” and it’s simple. Anybody older than I am. Thanks Edna.

Winter is fast approaching and with it expected snow and ice. Last winter was so severe we had ice dam the entire length of the house, front and back with icicles hanging practically to the ground from the iced gutters. While beautiful and unique to look at they certainly did terrible damage to our living room ceiling. I was told it was because of the ice dams and resultant back up of water into the house. We have a cathedral ceiling in the living room so there is not much insulation possible between the sheetrock and the wood and shingles of the roof. While the ceiling has been repaired we are worried about a recurrence of another winter.

A repairman told us that an easy way to prevent ice dams is to fill ladies nylon stockings with common sidewalk deicer and lay them across the edge of the roof near the gutter. Supposedly the deicer barriers prevent the build-up of ice or ice dams. Sounds plausible but we are wondering if the strong, possibly caustic, chemicals of the deicer would damage the roof shingles, gutters or the gutter guards. We also wonder about the best placement of our stocking deicers-- if used. Should they be all along the entire length of gutters, at bends, what space between the stocking and if so how much?

We also told that there are special “roof rakes” that can be used to rake away accumulating snow from the roof thus preventing build-up of ice and snow and the dams formation. Are these effective and lightweight enough so that senior citizens can manipulate them and clear the roof?

A. Last year we didn’t have winter. We had Snowmageddon. I have worked in northern Ontario in winter and didn’t see snow that bad even way up there. There was a front page article last Monday basically stating our chances were even for a repeat. I hope not.

Ice damming occurs when snow begins to melt just above the roof shingles caused by escaping house heat, as you’ve figured, and runs down the roof under what snow is still up there and when melt water reaches the building line-- that invisible vertical line that goes straight up from the edge of the house-- where the temperature underneath is the same as the air temperature the water heading for the gutter refreezes, creating an “ice dam”. The ice dam then prevents more melt from reaching the roof edge or gutter to drain and water begins to back up under the shingles and ultimately-- as what happened to you-- leaks into the house. I don’t care how “senior” you are, do not attack a snow covered roof with any sort of tool unless that’s what you do for a living. You will either damage the roof or fall off and kill yourself. It happens at least once a year around here where someone who shouldn’t be in a tree or on a roof falls and dies in the effort. It’s not worth it.

Your repairman failed to mention what really should be done. Building codes as long as they have been in existence around here have mentioned that if a local area has certain low temperatures during certain winter months or that conditions conducive to the formation of ice damming have been known to occur, roofers are supposed to roof against ice damming. The method of roofing protection can be as prescribed in the code of doubling up and cementing two layers of underlayment at the exterior building wall line extending up roof for two feet of horizontal distance inside of the building wall line or accomplishing the same result with a self adhering polymer modified bitumen sheet, such as W.R. Grace’s Ice and Water Shield. But since we only get ice damming conditions about once or so in a decade most roofers don’t do it. Seems to be happening a bit more these days. Most newer homes with lots of proper insulation and all of the penetrations from inside the house by wires and pipes going from the house walls up into and though the roof sealed and using state of the art ridge and soffit venting present what we call a “cold roof” from which the snow, when it does melt, does it from the top and evenly, preventing ice dam formation. You might call a roofer and discuss peeling back the first few feet of shingles to install an Ice and Water Shield layer. It might be hard to match the existing roof shingles. I recommended the salt in panty hose trick about a year ago as an ice dam fix in a pinch but if you know ice damming is a predictble occurrence I’d go for the real fix. And I don’t care how old you are, stay off of ladders and roofs especially when ice and snow are involved.

Keep the mail coming. If you've got a question, tip, or comment let me know. Write "On The Level," c/o The Capital, P.O. Box 3407, Annapolis, MD 21403 or e-mail me at jimrooney@jimrooneyonthelevel.com or inspektor@aol.com.