Ice Dams Can Cause Water Damage Throughout Your Watertown Home

12/8/2017 (Permalink)

Water Damage Caused By Ice Dams

Snowfall in Watertown seems to fall in more substantial amounts lately than in the past. Fluctuations between daytime and nighttime temperatures can help create ice dams near your roof's edge. When your home's heat rises, the placement of insulation under the roof should keep the heat from escaping through the shingles.

Melting snow on the surface does not create the same risk for water damage to your Watertown home that melting snow underneath poses. Water from melted snow that does not drain away from your roof before refreezing can form an ice dam. Ice dams might form in a small area or along the entire length of a section of the roof and typically form over missing or damaged insulation.

When a roof has an ice dam, the water from melting snow above it becomes trapped. Your roof's design helps water flow off, but trapped water cannot do this. Instead, thawing forces water into any tiny cracks, which enlarge when the temperature outside drops below freezing. When water seeps inside and reaches your roof's underside, it starts damaging your home's interior.

Water from your roof that manages to enter your home can end up anywhere, including the basement. We use select devices that measure the amount of moisture in the air and the materials inside your home to counteract water's natural ability to spread.

Water and moisture cause a variety of changes in the many different materials found in your home. Slight moisture for extended periods, much like that encountered in homes suffering from ice dams, causes different problems than one-time events from burst water lines and overflowing water. We put our IICRC certificates in Applied Structural Drying (ASD) and Water Damage Restoration (WRT) to good use when restoring homes suffering from damage brought on by water and high humidity.

When melted snow on your home reveals warm spots on its roof, ice dams can develop quickly, leading to water damage inside. Call us, SERVPRO of Wilson County, for our 24-hour service, at (615) 449-5000 to protect your home and belongings from water damage.

For more about the city of Watertown visit http://www.watertowntn.com/.