ICE DAMS! How To Stop A Roof Leak With Roof Melt

How to stop a roof leak caused by ice dams using Roof Melt, a Roof Rake and a hammer! WARNING! DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME! I am a professional and carry insurance to do this work. Borsellino Carpentry & Home Repair, LLC does not assume any liability if you attempt to do this yourself. Consult a professional....... But if you do, please be safe!!! These ice dams were at least 10 inches thick that were causing the melted snow to back up under the shingles and through the roof into my house! I spent around 5 hours from start to finish getting it all cleared and ready for more snow! Gotta love winter in Upstate New York!
TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
0:12 The problem and damage
1:17 The attic and the leak!
2:07 Locating the problem area from outside
2:32 TOOLS
3:01 How ice dams start and how to prevent them
5:12 Up to the roof!
5:38 FOUND THE PROBLEM!
6:23 Exposed the ridge vent
6:47 Chisel ice with hammer
7:28 Start laying roof melt pucks
8:27 Update after all the channels are cut in
9:27 Checking the first ones and applying more roof melt
10:54 Check in 2 days later
11:25 IT'S WORKING!!!
True Temper Telescoping Snow Roof Rake www.lowes.com/pd/True-Temper-...
Roof Melt 14 lb Fast Acting Ice Melt www.lowes.com/pd/Roofmelt-14-...
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Borsellino Carpentry is a construction company located in Upstate New York. I specialize in small residential remodeling jobs. This channel is dedicated to teaching other contractors, carpenters, small business owners, DIYers, weekend warriors and anyone else who just wants to learn a little bit about home improvement. The full name of the company is actually Borsellino Carpentry & Home Repair, LLC but that is just too much of a mouthful! I also do tool reviews, business tips and other contractor related videos on this channel. In the wintertime I even do snow plowing videos. I try to mix it up and show all the parts of the contracting job, not just the glorious finished product. Please leave me a comment and let me know if there's any specific topics or jobs you'd like me to cover. Thanks for watching! 👋😃
#icedam #roofleak #roofmelt

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

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[@atawolobongo]

Thanks, man. I appreciate the clear and detailed video. Cheers to everyone feeling the pain of ice dams!

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

you're welcome. Yeah ice dams are horrible!

[@atravers349]

Great, informative video! Thank you! I live in NE Ohio, and am dealing with major ice dams right now. This morning, my wife noticed water coming in to the kitchen, dripping from a window.

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

Awesome! That's exactly where mine came in... the kitchen window, at midnight!!! Please be safe if you get up there. Just getting the snow off the roof will help enormously but creating channels for the water to get out should stop the leak within hours. If you're not comfortable doing it yourself, lots of contractors and roofers do it but not all will use the roof melt pucks they will just get the snow off so just ask some questions

[@ghost1on]

Really appreciate this video man - I’ve been dealing with icedams in February for the last 3 years and this one is perfect to show to clear them. Thank you!

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

BE SAFE! I added another layer of R-30 to my attic this year and it practically eliminated my ice dams

[@roofheatingsystems]

We used to have many of these pucks of roof melt in my roof. It used to be a hassle every winter to do the same thing in dangerous conditions as you were on top of this ladder. Had exact same problems due to the insulation in attic not properly installed. Had to change the entire soffit. Eventually, a few years later, I designed a snow and ice melting mat for the roof. Have been solving these ice dams problems for many customers in US. Would love to send you a sample if you would like. Thank you for the informative video.

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

I added more insulation this year and it solved my ice dams but thank you!

[@tompem]

Since you said "I have an ice shield covering the entire side of the roof", I don't see how the water has a path even if ice dams form.

[@gingersweeney7071]

Thanks!

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

Hope it helps!!!

[@jamestreanor182]

brilliant

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

indeed

[@Aylehouse]

I did something similar for my ice dams, but I filled knee high stockings with ice melt (not rock salt, but the stuff that's safe for plants and animals), and that was also an effective technique at melting through the dams.

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

Cool I've heard about that but never tried it!

[@joan-lisa-smith]

Just be careful as the sodium chloride in that kind eats away at shingles and metal rooves. That's why I switched to the pucks.

[@urmastertech]

Thank you this is exactly what I need for my house. Only problem is that the roof melt is out of stock everywhere. We just bought the house in Oct. So we didn't get a chance to insulate the attic more.

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

Oh darn! At least you can chisel the ice away for now to give the water somewhere to drain. just be careful not to hit the shingles you can easily damage them

[@urmastertech]

@@BorsellinoHomeServices I did actually just find a local hardware store that had a pallet in stock so I bought a couple containers. So far they look like they are working to not overflow the gutters at least. I did try to clear the ends of the gutters as well

[@limpfinger12]

This is what I'm dealing with right now. It really sucks. Our bedroom is an addition that has no attic, so water is coming into the bedroom ceiling and leaking through the ceiling fan. I finally got some pucks up there today, and I'm hoping they help!

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

Good luck hope it works! You need to get a channel so the water has somewhere to drain to other than inside your house. The pucks work really fast but once they hit the asphalt they stop doing anything cause there's no more ice to melt. And if the ice is too thick they just made a big puddle sometimes

[@limpfinger12]

@@BorsellinoHomeServices it got up to almost 60 today so it's just about gone, but it decided to do some drywall damage before it stopped!

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

@@limpfinger12 yeah that'll happen. unfortunately that means it did insulation damage too. when insulation gets wet supposedly it loses r-value after that. also could cause mold issues inside the walls. the fire & water restoration company i've always worked with insists if a wall is wet inside it needs to come apart and dried out thoroughly but i know a lot of people don't even know this or think of it or want to deal with it

[@walterjoncas12]

Even with R 50 insulation we still get icicles. Damming has not been as much of a problem, but I know there must be some. The ridge vent does not clear itself from attic heat until that snow eventually melts or blows off that area of my roof.

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

I'm sure that spray foam helped a lot with the melting at your place. I'm thinking about using r-30 to cross hatch making it r-60! Might as well!

[@bobbygetsbanned6049]

2:08 You really stood under them massive ice cycles and looked up? Lmao great way to lose an eye or even die!

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

😳

[@adamr8628]

I hear your point but if you're looking up at icicles 2 stories above you and they break, you have time to move out of the way! Unless you're REALLY slow or just dumbfounded by the thought of getting hit and keep standing there staring at them. Lol

[@wskripka1]

Wow , you have a big Mold problem . Needs to be removed .

[@bozzyham]

I don't see a link to the tool you used to break the ice...sorry if I missed it, been a long day dealing with my own Ice Dam 😭😭😭😭

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

I think i just used a straight claw hammer. Just be careful not to hit the shingles! AND BE CAREFUL ON THE LADDER!!!

[@bozzyham]

@@BorsellinoHomeServices thank you! I will!

[@mrzif0013]

is salt bad for roof shingles?

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

the product claims to be safe for roofs, that is what it is intended for

[@larrycrookshanks1646]

Hope you figured this out. If you had that much water rolling out behind the siding then it means that the original install probably was done wrong. Your roof ice shield was probably installed even with the gutter board and the water is getting between the plywood and filling the soffit with ice. When the ice buildup reaches the stud wall it starts to melt and drip behind the siding. If you don't pull the shingles at the bottom and install the ice shield over the gutter board then you will still have the problem. The other problem is the vent ridge that you installed. If it's the roll out micro fiber it's junk. Replace it with the metal filter vent or plastic shingle over with baffle. I'm 2nd generation roofing contractor with 50+ years of on roof experience and I'm in northeast Ohio snow belt. I also do not like the hardened foam insulation that homeowners are installing in attics. Walls are fine.

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

I used ice and water shield installed over the drip edge when I did the roof 10 years ago. Still managed to get through. The leak was not on the outer edge it was up on the roof 12-16" or so. I agree the ventilation sucks and I want to improve it

[@larrycrookshanks1646]

@@BorsellinoHomeServices Here's your problem then. You are in a snow and ice region with cold temperatures. When you install ice and water shield it must be run 3" down over the gutter board. Then you can install the drip edge and then a 6" strip of ice shield over the drip to seal the drip edge. You can do it also in reverse with 9" ice shield to start, drip edge, then 3' ice shield. Here's why the water is coming in. The snow melts and freezes in the gutter, the more snow you get on the roof leads to more ice buildup. If the snow is heavy then the snow acts a insulator and keeps on melting on the surface of the shingles. Then the water in the gutter freezes the gutter board to the back of the gutter. As the water melts at the drip edge it will back up under the drip and enter the soffit. The water will re-freeze in the soffit and proceed to fill soffit solidly. As things warm the water will melt at the stud wall and leak down between the siding and the wall. If you don't change the ice shield situation you will continue to have problems.

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

@@larrycrookshanks1646 I don't have gutters. And I wouldn't run the ice and water on top of my facia board that is painted white. The Ice builds up on the roof surface and dams up 12-16" above the drip edge, not below it. Ice dams are caused by heat loss and poor ventilation. I've since added another layer of R30 which has cut way down on my heat loss and I'm not having massive ice buildup anymore (so far). I just need to increase the ventilation in my attic somehow. I would like to find a ridge vent that allows more heat to escape without letting bees into the attic. I've also considered adding gable vents with screening but you're not supposed to have soffit/ridge vents and gable vents at the same time because they can cancel each other out. But I think the ridge vent isn't allowing for airflow anyway which is why I've considered the gable vents. Thanks for the helpful advice though!

[@larrycrookshanks1646]

@@BorsellinoHomeServices If you want the best airflow for vent ridge then you will need to install aluminum metal ridge vent with filtervent. Next best is a plastic vent with baffles like CertainTeed air vent ll. There were studies on vents back in 1995 by University of Illinois.

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

@@larrycrookshanks1646 Thanks for the tip! I'll look it up!

[@caseyscott9611]

Ice dam steamer my friend

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

whats that?

[@caseyscott9611]

@@BorsellinoHomeServices I am a sales rep for a roofing company in ohio we use it to remove ice dams on houses in the winter works great and fast

[@adamr8628]

@@caseyscott9611 What model do you recommend? Also, besides the best one, do you know which is an economical.model? I've looked at them, might buy one to do my roof, and maybe help other people out. They definitely attack ice like nothing else does.

[@joenissan]

No need to rid the entire roof of snow. Use ice melt to make paths through the damn or better yet, heated cable to make paths for water to escape.

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

heat cables work but you have to install them before winter. The point of removing the snow off the roof is then there is no snow to melt and back up

[@joenissan]

@@BorsellinoHomeServices True but you can’t remove snow all winter. Lol

[@larrycrookshanks1646]

You have more issues than that with the whole roof being ice and water shield. You have major heat loss and all the plywood inside is full of black algae. Most likely ice shield is not over the gutter board edge sealed to gutter board itself and lack of insulation in the attic.. Plus your ridge vent is probably one of the poor preforming cheap one's. There is probably moisture on all of the nails protruding inside the attic.

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

BINGO!!! This year I sprayed the attic mold and installed more insulation and had no major ice dams. the ridge vent SUCKS!!! and barely does anything. I don't think the soffit vent does enough either. I'm not sure why they don't make things that actually work... oh wait... it's probably cheaper for the manufacturer that way and they don't care about the customer! duh! lol

[@GameBrigade]

How does the water get through the ice and water barrier

[@jeffbeddoe2953]

When you showed the water above the ice dam on the roof, why didn't you attempt to lift the shingle and see if the shingles were sealed. Are you saying if the shingles are sealed, that the water somehow is getting through the seal? Even if the water was getting behind the shingles and you have a quality leak barrier, the water should not penetrate into the attic space. Even the nails are sealed with good leak barrier (ice & water shield). Did you ever think that it is very possible that the warm air in the attic is hitting the underside of that cold roof deck, it condensates, frosts up, and when it warms up outside, the frost melts and drips down?? Did you look to see if those ice melting pucks are a chloride (salt) which can void the shingle water and also take the paint off metal fascia and/or gutter? Hmmmm

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

Oh no this was definitely a roof leak. I went in the attic and could see it and there was icicles coming out from behind the siding all the way up the wall to one spot. I wasn't really concerned about voiding the roof warranty I was more concerned with stopping the water from coming in my house

[@jetbikes1]

Looks like a pretty newer home to have that much mold ! Is it from all the Foam ?

[@BorsellinoHomeServices]

Well the house is 1870 but i took off the flat roof and installed trusses so the roof framing and everything is all new. I even installed ridge and soffit vents. I think I had a few different problems. First was I never put the plumbing vent out the roof and my plumber told me it wasn't a big deal and just to do it in the future and I kept putting it off until it was too late. Second, I installed R30 insulation but code is now R49 so I was having a lot of heat loss causing ice dams. I have since installed another layer of R30 or R38 I can't remember so I have a lot more insulation. Third, I think the standard ridge and soffit vents don't actually allow enough airflow and I plan to install gable vents even though that ends up making the ridge and soffit vent not work properly. I just need more ventilation somehow and I don't know how else to do that .