Re: ice dams

mrbeanfan wrote:
I live in Minnesota. I have a story and a half house (basically, two
bedrooms exist in the attic.). Every year I get nasty, nasty ice dams
and I am trying to get ahead of it now.

Here's my question:
The previous homeowner had insulated kneewall where the highest part
met the room walls. All the way to the top. There was NO AIR going up
over the insulation to escape out the three or four roof vents.
Completely sealed off.
No wonder my upstairs gets to be 100 degrees in the summer.

I ripped that out. I would like to cut in some soffit vents but I have
a tiny (5" overhang).

Are soffit vents going to do me any good?

It seem like adding vent to the attic could only help.l

What about a "Whole house fan" especially in the summer?

I live in northern Minnesota. I have also lived down south. I assume
you are talking about an attic fan which exhaust the whole house.
Those are common in the south but I have never seen one in my 22 years
in Minnesota and I do not think they aer suited to a climate where we
heat our home 8 month of the year. It would likely contribute to any
ice dam problem since it creates a large opening in the ceiling for the
fan.

Did I do the right thing taking out the insulation batts at the top of
the kneewall connection so that air can move up to the vents?

Hard to say. Less insulation in a wall could actually contribute to
the problem.

Another thing that I thought of is my boiler (located in the center of
my home) puts out a huge amount of heat. It rises right through that
ceiling, right through the floor above, and right to the roof, where it
consequently melts a lot of snow.

Would I be doing the right thing by lining the ceiling in the boiler
room (it's a small room) with R 21 insulation, 1/2 sheetrock, followed
up by some 1" R-Board? My goal is to keep that heat downstairs and not
flying right to the roof every time the boiler runs.

It couldn't hurt but as others have said, use gypsum drywall for fire
protection. dont' leave insulation exposed to the boiler.

Many, many homes in minnesota have ice dams. They are pretty much the
rule in some older neighborhoods. My take on it is that it is a lot
easier to design and construct proper attic venting in a new
construction. It is quite a lot more difficult to do so in an older
home which may not have been properly designed for ventilation and
where previous remodels and upgrades may prevent you from doing so.

By all means do what you can to prevent the problem but don't be
surprised if you wind up in the same boat as many others, with ice
dams. My place has them. I actually gently remove the snow from my
roof after a storm. then when dams do form, I go up there with ice
melt and sprinkle above the ice. there are also ice melt bags that
folk place above the dam and it releases the chemical gradually. I
also understand that some use electric cable to melt the ice. Some
just ignore them but they can cause your roof to leak, damaging your
roof deck, attic insulation and in the worst case leak into the house.
It you can go into the attic to see if it is leaking, it might save
you some work. Ice dams are undesirable, for sure, but they are not
always easily fixable. Monitoring and Managing the situation on a
season by season basis is what you may be stuck with.

lawrence

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