Roofers all over the region are working overtime battling snow and ice and the damage they cause. The concern at a Boothwynne shopping center visited by Action News is that ice is falling from gutters that had been damaged. "It literally bent them over," Jim Miller of Miller Roofing told Action News. "It was a real danger."
In Overbrook Park, Bert Trama was battling an ice dam on a flat roof, using shovels and salt. The homeowner was concerned about ice building up on a downspout near electric wires and water leaking through her roof.
So what is an ice dam and how does it cause trouble? On a pitched roof, heavy snow fall accumulates and a warm attic melts the bottom layer. The water then flows toward the edge of the roof that's not warmed by the attic, the water refreezes and gradually the ice builds up to be an ice dam.
The process continues, and newly melted snow backs up behind the dam, slush forces its way under the shingles and then melts which allows water to pour into the attic and the home's living space. It can be a mess.
Dave Paolantonio has been a roofer for 28 years. He told Action News how he deals with an ice dam.
First, carefully shovel off a ridge of snow and then chop out the ice that's formed in the gutter. The idea is to let the water flow down the gutters. "Try to remove two to three feet of snow above gutter line," David Paolantonio of Miller Roofing told Action News. "That allows everything to flow, thaw, and come out the way it should be going... down the gutters."
This is a situation that could go from bad to worse with more precipitation expected in the immediate forecast, and then continued freezing and thawing with highs in the 30s and lows in the 20s.
Roofers could be very busy in the coming days.
