Greater Lansing
Ice dam prevention
The ice is on your roof, so the roof looks like the problem. It is not. The middle of that roof is warmer than its edge because heat is escaping from the house into the attic — and everything sold to melt or break the ice leaves that exactly as it was.
What is actually wrong
An ice dam forms because the middle of your roof is warmer than its edge. Heat escaping from the house melts snow against the deck; the water runs down to the overhang, which is cold because there is no house under it, and freezes there. The ridge of ice that builds up holds the next meltwater back, and water standing on a roof finds its way under the shingles and into the wall.
That is why the fix is inside and not on the roof. The roof is cold or it is not, and what decides it is how much warm air is getting into the attic and how much insulation is slowing it down.
Everything sold to deal with the ice itself — heat cable, raking, chipping, salt pucks — manages the symptom for the rest of that winter. None of it changes why the roof is warm, and some of it damages shingles.
Where this stops
When it is not a handyman job
This is at the top of the page rather than the bottom because getting it wrong costs you a wasted visit. Insured, and no contractor license is claimed or implied — the Michigan residential builder license is not held.
- THIS IS A NEW SERVICE AND THE RECORDS CARRY NO ICE DAM JOBS. The attic insulation and air sealing pages this sits under are new as well and say so.
- HEAT CABLE IS NOT INSTALLED HERE, and it is worth saying why rather than just declining: it runs on your electricity all winter to melt a channel through a problem the attic is causing, and it treats the symptom forever instead of the cause once.
- Nobody is sent onto a roof to chip or break ice off. It damages shingles, it is dangerous, and it does not stop it happening again.
- Shingle replacement and steep-slope roofing are not taken on and are referred.
- Where a dam has already put water into the structure, the structural question is somebody else’s trade.
The work itself
What actually gets done
Air sealing the attic floor — the hatch, top plates, wiring and plumbing penetrations, and the bypasses around chimneys and recessed lights, which is where most of the heat actually goes.
Bringing attic insulation up to depth once the sealing is done, in that order and not the other way round.
Checking that soffit vents are not blocked by insulation and that baffles keep the air path open from the eave upward.
Checking that bathroom and kitchen fans vent outside the building rather than into the attic, which is a common and very effective way to make ice dams worse.
Repairing the water damage afterward where the dam already got in — ceilings, drywall and trim.
This work sits inside Attic Insulation, which carries the invoiced price bands for the trade with the sample size printed beside every figure.
What it costs
There is no price list for this, and here is what actually decides the number.
The same three words describe a twenty-minute job and a two-day one. Rather than publish a figure that is wrong for one of them, here is what moves it — so you can work out roughly which end of it you are at before anybody comes out.
How much of the attic can be reached and worked in. A low-pitch attic with ducts across it is slow going.
How much air sealing there is before any insulation goes down, which is only known once somebody is up there.
Whether the venting is working, because adding insulation over blocked soffits makes the problem worse rather than better.
Whether there is already water damage to put right.
How to get a real number
Somebody comes out, looks at it properly, and you get a fixed price in writing with the work set out line by line and the exclusions written down as plainly as the inclusions. Coming out to do that is not charged for, and neither is working out what is wrong. If something is found once a wall or a floor is open, it is priced as a written change order and you decide before the work carries on rather than after it is billed. Materials are supplied at cost with the receipt attached, first-time customers get 10% off labor, and labor carries a one-year craftsmanship warranty.
If this is happening right now
What to do in the next five minutes, and what happens when you ring.
Before anybody arrives
- Photograph the icicles and the roof edge from the ground, and say which side of the house faces which way. A dam on one elevation only is a strong clue.
- Look at the attic hatch. If it is a sheet of plywood with no weather stripping, that single opening is a chimney into your attic.
- In the attic, look for insulation that is gray or dark in patches. That is dust filtered out of air moving through it, and it marks a leak precisely.
- If water is coming in now, that is a leak today — catch it, keep off the roof, and deal with the cause in the spring.
Call the business line
(517) 505-7135Answered Monday to Friday, 08:00 to 18:00. There is no out-of-hours line and this page is not going to invent one — outside those hours, leave a message with the address and what is happening, and it is picked up in the morning.
On the call you get asked what is happening, what else in the building is affected, and whether it is still getting worse. That is how it gets decided whether this is our job at all — and if it is not, you get told that on the phone rather than after somebody has driven out.
- No trip charge
- No call-out fee or minimum
- No diagnostic fee
- No charge for a return visit
True across all 84 written quotes this company has issued. Most contractors in this market charge to turn up.
Or send the detailsWhen the right answer is not this company
- You can smell gas
- Leave the building and call the utility from outside. Not us, and not later.
- Water you cannot stop
- Your main shut-off first, then a licensed plumber. Every minute of this one costs money.
- Sewage backing up, or several fixtures at once
- A licensed plumber with a camera. That is the shared line, not a fixture, and a cable down one sink will not touch it.
- Sparking, scorching or a burning smell at an outlet or a panel
- Breaker off, and a licensed electrician. Electrical work here is repair and like-for-like replacement, and this is neither.
- No heat, or heating and cooling equipment that has failed
- A licensed mechanical contractor. That trade is not offered here at all, and knowing that in one phone call is worth more than a visit.
Questions people actually ask
What actually causes ice dams?
Heat getting from the house into the attic, warming the roof deck and melting snow that then refreezes at the cold overhang. It is a heat problem rather than a roof problem, which is why replacing the shingles on a house does not stop ice dams and sealing an attic usually does.
Should I install heat cable?
It is not installed here. It melts a channel through the ice using your electricity, every winter, for as long as you own the house, and it does nothing about the heat loss causing the dam. Sealing and insulating the attic costs more once and then stops costing anything.
Is raking the roof worth it?
As a stopgap during a bad winter it reduces the snow available to melt, and it is better than chipping at ice. It is not a fix, it has to be repeated after every snowfall, and done carelessly it takes granules off the shingles.
Will more insulation on its own stop them?
Usually not on its own, and that order matters. Insulation slows heat that is conducted; it does not stop warm air pouring through a gap around a chimney or an unsealed hatch. Air sealing first, then insulation. Doing it the other way round buries the leaks where nobody can reach them.
Book an attic and ice dam assessment
Photograph the icicles and the roof edge from the ground, and say which way that elevation faces — a dam on one side only is a strong clue. Open the attic hatch and say whether you can see the tops of the joists above the insulation. If water is coming in right now, catch it, stay off the roof, and tell us; the cause gets dealt with when it is safe to be up there. Coming out is free and there is no trip charge.