ice dams: Recessed Lights Are Evil - 02/01/11 06:25 AM
I love recessed lights, but even the best ones create a ridiculous amount of heat in attics, which can lead to ice dams. Until I started performing infrared inspections in attics, I never quite grasped how much heat recessed lights contributed to attics, but now my eyes are wide open. The main problem I find with recessed lights is that they’re not insulated well enough; on a recent home inspection in Maple Grove, I found a home with forty-six recessed lights sticking up in to the attic, along with some wicked ice dams on the roof.
A standard recessed light will stick up in to … (65 comments)
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ice dams: Ice Dams, Pantyhose, Salt - 01/11/11 06:27 AM
Ever since I was a teenager working at a hardware store, I've heard of people filling up pantyhose with salt and tossing them on their roof to create drainage channels in ice dams. After hearing about this so many times and even seeing this method of creating drainage channels in ice dams on the news, I began to believe this actually worked.
Nevertheless, I tend to question everything, and last year I finally got around to testing this method on my own. Instead of laying the pantyhose perpendicular to the ice dam, I laid them parallel to the ice dam in an … (35 comments)
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ice dams: How To Get Rid Of Ice Dams - 12/14/10 06:09 AM
While I've already written about how to prevent ice dams from happening, I've found that I get far more inquiries about how to get rid of ice dams. There are plenty of 'hack' methods out there, so I decided to try them out and blog about it. The methods I'm going to discuss involve axes, ice picks, pantyhose, salt, heat cables, and a blowtorch. Of course, the most effective and safe way of getting rid of ice dams is to hire a professional ice dam removal company.
I originally posted this blog almost a year ago, but here in Minneapolis we're currently … (57 comments)
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ice dams: How To Get Rid Of Ice Dams - 01/05/10 06:34 AM
Last year at about this time I wrote a blog about ice dams, covering what needs to be done to prevent ice dams from happening, both on the inside and outside of the house. This year I'll discuss a bunch of different ways to get rid of ice dams. The methods involve axes, ice picks, pantyhose, salt, and heat cables.
Axe The most obvious way to get rid of ice dams would be to just take a blunt instrument and hack away at the ice dams. I tried an axe.
Pros: Fast results - I hacked through several feet … (30 comments)
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ice dams: How To Fix Or Prevent Ice Dams - 02/21/09 07:29 AM
After the big snowfall in Minnesota last night, it's a good time to talk about ice dams. Ice dams are caused by the same thing I've been blogging about for the last several entries; heat loss! The most obvious sign of heat loss in attics is ice dams - those huge masses of ice that build up at the edges of roofs. Ice dams occur because heat from the house escapes in to the attic, warms the roof, and causes snow to melt. When the water gets to the cold overhang at the eave, it freezes. As the ice builds up, … (2 comments)
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