Often ice dams are created because of the melting snow pools behind dams of ice at the roof's edge and leaks into house. Also, ice dams and the damage that results from them are avoidable. An ice dam is a wall of ice that forms at the edge of the roof, usually at the gutters or soffit. When it forms the water then backs up behind the ice dam and creates a pool of water. This pool of water can leak into your home and cause damage to walls, ceilings, insulation, and other areas.

Causes of ice dams:
Ice dams are mainly caused due to heavy snowfall and improper ventilation in the attic. This causes warmer areas in the attic then the snow begins to melt, even when the outside temperature is well below freezing. When the accumulated snow on the roof starts melting it runs down the roof underneath the snow until it reaches a colder section like the soffit's, valleys or in gutters then it begins to freeze again, this process of thawing and refreezing is what causes an ice dam. Cleaning the gutters in home can help prevent ice dams from occurring as quickly but they can still occur if the conditions are right. The gutters will be just as cold as it is outside and in some cases, full of frozen debris. So even if there is no soffit for the water to refreeze in, the melted water will most likely refreeze when flowing into the gutters. Properly removing an ice dam can be quite dangerous if one is not well known of the ways. In the past some members of the media suggested hiring a contractor to pull the gutters off the home so the whole ice dam process would be solved. This suggestion was well intended but wrong. Contractors that started removing gutters caused significant damage to roofing and guttering systems, then when the snow melted it dropped next to the homes foundation and caused the basements to flood.

Prevention from causing ice dams:
The best way to prevent ice dams is to ventilate and insulate the attic If there are small louvered vents at either end of the attic known as gable vents one can either replace them with larger vents, or install an electric vent fan over the inside of them. These special fans usually work on a thermostat and will pull outside air into the attic to keep the temperature inside consistent.

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