Do this first
What to do right now
- Put buckets and towels down inside, and pull anything valuable away from the wet wall or ceiling.
- Do not chip, hammer, chisel or hatchet the ice. You will destroy the shingles and the gutter underneath and the leak gets worse.
- Do not put salt, rock salt or fertilizer on the roof: it stains, corrodes the gutters and flashing, and kills the plantings below.
- If you can safely reach the lower roof from the ground, a roof rake pulled from the ground removes the snow that feeds the dam. Stay off ladders in ice.
- Ask for low-pressure steam removal specifically, not a pressure washer, hot pressure water strips granules off asphalt shingles.
- Photograph the ice, the icicles and every interior stain before anything melts.
How an ice dam actually forms
It takes three things, and Ellington supplies all of them for about four months a year: snow on the roof, an upper roof surface above freezing, and an eave below freezing. Heat escaping from the living space into the attic, through recessed lights, bath fans dumping into the attic, a hatch with no weatherstripping, thin or compressed insulation, ductwork in unconditioned space, warms the sheathing from below. Snow on that warm section melts. The meltwater runs down to the overhang, which is cold because there is no heated room under it, and refreezes. Layer by layer a dam builds, water pools behind it, and standing water finds its way under shingles that were only ever designed to shed running water.
The removal, then the real fix
Emergency removal means low-pressure steam. A steamer melts a channel through the dam and lets the trapped water drain without touching the shingles. Chipping with tools and blasting with a pressure washer both cause more damage than the dam did. Some crews will also clear the snow load off the lower slope so the dam cannot immediately rebuild.
Removal buys you the rest of the winter. It does not stop it happening again. The durable fix is air sealing and ventilation: seal the attic-floor penetrations that let warm indoor air up, bring insulation to a consistent depth over the whole attic floor including out over the top plate at the eaves, and make sure soffit vents are actually open and not stuffed with insulation, so cold outside air can wash the underside of the sheathing and keep it at outdoor temperature. On a re-roof, a self-adhered ice-and-water membrane running from the eave well past the interior wall line is the belt-and-suspenders layer underneath.
Hiring in Connecticut
Contractors doing this work on Connecticut homes are generally required to hold a Home Improvement Contractor registration with the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection; verify it and ask for proof of liability and workers' compensation coverage before anyone gets on your roof in winter. If you plan to claim, confirm your reporting deadline with your own insurer, policies differ, and ice dam damage is handled inconsistently between carriers.
