Ice Damming: Roof venting or insulation problem?

My question is why just this area. It could be that everything was done with the right plan with some silly mistake.
The ridge vent talked about earlier would be under the flashing at the top of the roof and would be about 1' thick mesh like product.

nealtw said:

My question is why just this area. It could be that everything was done with the right plan with some silly mistake.
The ridge vent talked about earlier would be under the flashing at the top of the roof and would be about 1' thick mesh like product.

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Good point about it being localized? There are no dams at all anywhere else. Perhaps you are right about a mistake, seeing as how they completely forgot to insulate one of the bedroom's outer walls.

Will check ridge vents and report back. Thanks again Neal.

Your roofer suggested vents, what was he suggesting?.

nealtw said:

Your roofer suggested vents, what was he suggesting?.

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Okay, to clarify: Unbeknownst to me, one day my fiancee had some crew come out to remove the ice dams this winter. I got there as they were finishing up and spoke with the crew leader. I gotta be honest, I didn't get a warm and fuzzy from him at all, and was sure he was fishing for work. He claimed the vent covers were just for show and that we needed roof vents. I found that hard to believe and thought he was fishing for work for a roofer he was associated with. As soon as I learned what they charged her, and confronted him on it, he b-lined for the truck. My girl got taken. I didn't trust a word he said.

Anyway, maybe he wasn't full of it...but I haven't had a chance to investigate until now. I considered having some roofers and insulation guys come out and give me their quotes. I am sure they will both tell me it is their brand of expertise that will be the solution.

Not trying to sound cynical, but it's been one of those years. I am a fairly handy guy actually. Just don't know anything about roofing....yet.

Thanks again.

I think your best bet is to understand the system as best you can and in doing that you may find the problem, then at least you would know who to call if it is something you can't do your self.
He may have poked at the vent and found no hole behind it. But even if there is a hole there, there are two other requirments that may not be there. Continuity from the vent along the soffet so air can travel up each bay between rafters, the other is an air gap between the insulation and the roof sheeting to give air a space to move up the inside of the roof. Both these are ralitively easy fixes from the soffet area if there is a space to be used above the insulation in the rest of the roof.

nealtw said:

I think your best bet is to understand the system as best you can and in doing that you may find the problem, then at least you would know who to call if it is something you can't do your self.
He may have poked at the vent and found no hole behind it. But even if there is a hole there, there are two other requirments that may not be there. Continuity from the vent along the soffet so air can travel up each bay between rafters, the other is an air gap between the insulation and the roof sheeting to give air a space to move up the inside of the roof. Both these are ralitively easy fixes from the soffet area if there is a space to be used above the insulation in the rest of the roof.

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yeah that all makes a lot of sense. I am gonna remove the cover and check that out. I am gonna also get up on the roof and check the ridge vent out.

Ill post back with my findings. Thanks again.

You will find this interesting.
http://www.finehomebuilding.com/how-to/qa/venting-a-shed-roof.aspx

The cables aren't meant to be left up there all year long. They should come down in the spring and go up in late fall.

They aren't hard to put up and are very inexpensive. Especially compared to cutting in a roof vent or adding soffit vents that might not work anyway.

Around here a lot of people have been going with metal roofs. Standing seam comes in a variety of styles. They are creating an air space by laying a new roof over sleepers and then the metal. I don’t know if it’s a good idea or not but I see a lot of conversions and they seem to shed snow well and eliminate ice damming. I’m not sure how they do the venting top and bottom.

bud16415 said:

Around here a lot of people have been going with metal roofs. Standing seam comes in a variety of styles. They are creating an air space by laying a new roof over sleepers and then the metal. I don’t know if it’s a good idea or not but I see a lot of conversions and they seem to shed snow well and eliminate ice damming. I’m not sure how they do the venting top and bottom.

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The tin roof roof on sleepers creates an ice house roof discribes in the article I posted.

nealtw said:

The tin roof roof on sleepers creates an ice house roof discribes in the article I posted.

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That’s exactly what they are doing (ice house roof).

On the OP’s roof only thing different he would have to deal with is the sky lights.

nealtw said:

You will find this interesting.
http://www.finehomebuilding.com/how-to/qa/venting-a-shed-roof.aspx

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Wow, yeah that confirms why I found no ridge vent for that section of roof last night when I went up there, and confirms what you noticed in the photo a couple days ago. Nice find Neal, thanks a lot. Makes me think I might have been right about that "roofer with 20 years exp." Who knows, maybe he had never encountered a shed style roof.

Looks like cables might be the best solution after all.


You have been extremely helpful. You have my gratitude.

That was the first time I have seen that too.

nealtw said:

That was the first time I have seen that too.

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Guess I should stop raggin' on that roofer.

Thanks again.