Winterize Your Home and Prevent Ice Dams by De-icing Your Gutters

Winterize Your Home and Prevent Ice Dams by De-icing Your Gutters

Everyone who lives in a colder winter climate is familiar with icicles their idyllic appearance and the charming way they've become synonymous with winter. No winter scene feels truly complete without them, depending on how sentimental you are. But ice dams what are those?

Gutter ice dams are ridges that form at the eaves or overhang of the roof. As they grow, they block water from running off the roof, through the gutter, down the downspout and away from your home. The result is water redirected under the shingles of your roof, where it inevitably will seek exposures, causing water damage to walls, ceilings and insulation.

What causes gutter ice dams?

The biggest cause of ice dams is poorly insulated ceilings and attic spaces. Think of a frying pan with an open flame underneath it. As the heat rises to meet the pan's underside, it travels through it and up into the air by convection. Likewise, a poorly insulated home has the same effect. Heat from the house travels through the ceilings, then through cracks in the insulation and ultimately transfers through the roof, where snow loads melt and drip to the gutters, forming ice dams.

Other perpetrators in the formation of gutter ice dams are chimneys, space heaters, radiators, exhaust systems (bathroom, kitchen) and wood burning stoves.

Winterizing your home before the first snowfall is a great defense against gutter ice dams. You can:

Thoroughly clean your gutters of all debris so melted snow flows freely away.

Check your home primarily your ceilings and attic for insulation flaws. Use insulation with a high R-value in your attic for the best protection.

Inspect your roof for exposed areas or damaged shingles and correct troubled areas.

Beyond basic precautionary measures, the only way to ensure gutter ice dams and icicles don't form is to install a gutter de-icing system. The Gutterglove Icebreaker de-icing system runs a self-regulated heat cable throughout the gutters so ice dams and icicles never have the chance to form. Icebreaker also has a steel mesh covering that keeps all debris, such as leaves, twigs, dirt and sand out of the gutters, eliminating the need for gutter cleanings.

The Gutterglove Icebreaker System is designed to:

Minimize the extent of ice build-up at the edge of your roof

Melt icicles, ice dams and snow loads during winter

Radiate heat throughout an aluminum support frame using one self-regulating cable

Filter out leaves, needles and grit from your gutter once ice melts and spring arrives

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