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All In One Home Inspection Newsletter
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| Heavy Snow Newsletter |
March 2009 |
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Joseph Fleming III, PE - Owner - Home Inspector
Joseph Fleming is a licensed Home Inspector in NJ and NY and a Professional Engineer. He is a member/director of the Garden State Chapter of the American Society of Home Inspectors (ASHI)
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Mike Hoyt - Home Inspector
Mike Hoyt is a licensed NJ Home Inspector. He is a member of New Jersey Association of Licensed Professional Home Inspectors (NJ-ALPHI). He has been in the construction field for over 20 years.
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Welcome
Welcome to our Heavy Snow Newsletter. Now that there is a lot of snow predicted, we want to take the time to make sure your house is ready for it. In this newsletter we want to focus on ice dams on top of your roof. How do you prevent your roof from getting ice dams? But we want to start this newsletter with some tips to help you shovel more efficiently.
Enjoy reading our newsletter!
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Shoveling tips
 To make sure you don't physically stress out while shoveling snow, we have some tips for you:
* Don't wait until all the
snow is done. Go
outside every couple of
inches and scrape of the
next layer. This way you
make sure your
not shoveling anything to
heavy.
* Don't wait a day. The snow could melt and turn into ice.
* Try to shovel early in the day. The sun can help melt off remaining
snow and ice from walks and driveways.
* Be sparing with salt, it can destroy cement walks, steps and
stoops.
* Dig out meters and mailboxes to help out your postal and utility
workers. Dig out fire hydrants if present in your yard as well.
* Help out where you can, if you have a snow blower and a public
sidewalk, do your neighbors walk once in a while. Help elderly
people.
* Dig a path through the yard for your small dog to run, which will help
the sidewalks from becoming soiled.
* Buy snow shovels when you don't need them yet, because when it
is snowing they are hard to find.
* And last, but not least, don't pile up snow where water runs during
the melt off.
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| Ice dams
Ice dams are typically caused by heat escaping from the house, and melting the snow on the upper parts of the roof. The melted snow re-freezes when it gets down to the colder eave area where there is no heat loss from the house. Thawing water gets trapped behind the ice buildup to puddle and leak past the roof surface to damage the interior spaces of the home
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| There are several things that can be done to minimize ice damming:
1) One of the best things you can do is upgrade the attic
insulation and ventilation to keep the attic as cold as possible. This will minimize the snow melting on the roof surface. Focus on good venting in the soffit area.
Click on the picture to enlarge it.
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2) Add eave protection in the form of a waterproof membrane under the roofing shingles from above where the ice dams may form, down past the edge of the roof sheathing. If water backs up under the shingles, the membrane will help collect and hold the moisture until the ice dams melt off. Any area of the roof prone to ice damming should have a water proof membrane installed.
Click on the picture to enlarge it.
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3) Adding electric heating cables anywhere on the roof where ice
dams may form will help melt off snow and ice before it has a chance to puddle up under the roof shingles to leak inside the home.
Good luck and have a safe, dry snow storm!
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Thank you
Thank you for choosing All In One Home Inspection. We're always happy to help you with any questions or problems. Please, keep referring us to you family, relatives, friends and neighbors. If you would like to read our previous newsletters, take a look at our website. If you have any suggestions for blog topics, please let us know.
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Our philosophy is clients for life.
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| Contact Info
All in One Home Inspection, LLC
35 1ST AVENUE
WESTWOOD, New Jersey 07675
201-263-0040
www.allinonehomeinspection.com
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Developed and maintained by Martha Schokker ()
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